PHILADELPHIA — You are being watched.
It is difficult to escape that sensation when viewing the work of Didier William, a 36-year-old Haitian-American artist who will be exhibiting for the first time at Art Basel Miami Beach. His three enormous paintings destined for the fair, which are part of a larger series he has tentatively titled “Broken Skies: Vertières,” all depict huge, amorphous bodies whose skin is covered with narrow, piercing eyes.
The James Fuentes Gallery in New York will present these pieces in the Nova section against a backdrop that is also dotted with eyes. For Mr. William, this repeating symbol is both a shield from — and a response to — an onlooker’s curious appraisal.
“The eye motif developed around 2014 or 2015 as a way to return some of that gaze back onto the viewer,” he said in an interview in his studio here.
