Exhibitions
M. FLORINE DÉMOSTHÈNE AND DIDIER WILLIAM: WHAT THE BODY CARRIES
Frist Art Museum / 919 Broadway January 31, 2025 - May 4, 2025
M. Florine Démosthène, Didier William
The Frist Art Museum presents M. Florine Démosthène and Didier William: What the Body Carries, a multimedia exhibition of figurative paintings, collages, and sculptures by Haitian American artists M. Florine Démosthène and Didier William. Organized by the Frist Art Museum, the exhibition will be on view in the Frist’s Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery from January 31 through May 4, 2025.
M. Florine Démosthène was born in New York but spent much of her childhood in Haiti. Didier William, who was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, moved to Miami, Florida with his family when he was six years old. This exhibition explores how immigrant bodies can carry memories and heritage while simultaneously embodying a new, hybrid reality. Through their multimedia works, Démosthène and William—both featured in the Frist’s 2023 exhibition Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage—offer insights into their experiences navigating life outside Haiti while still being informed by the country’s history, culture, and spiritual traditions.
“This project offers an opportunity to consider the connections and departures between the work of two artists of Haitian descent,” writes Senior Curator Katie Delmez. “In a context where immigrant narratives have often been oversimplified in the media, we hope this exhibition gives more expansive and authentic insights into how their families’ relocations to the US have shaped the creative practices of two artists making their marks on the contemporary landscape, as well as how personal stories shape our communities, survival strategies, and overall vitality.”
Exhibition Credit
Organized by the Frist Art Museum
Supporter Acknowledgement
Supported in part by the Gordon CAP Gallery Fund and Clay Blevins
The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by The Frist Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Didier William. Moult 1, 2023. Acrylic, ink, oil, wood carving on panel52 x 72 in. Image courtesy of the artist and Altman Siegel, San Francisco, © Didier William
