Paul Gardère & Didier William

“For the artist in our time to enter the stream of contemporary ideas, he or she has to abandon the notion of a fixed center. He is his own center, being if he chooses in several places at once, speaking several tongues or being able to look at any given situation from a variety of points of view. The concept of multiple narratives, a story with two or more points of view, is the operational principle of my work.”

—Paul Gardère, 2007

“This idea that we don’t exist as singular bodies or singular identities, I think, has always been very much part of my work… the overwhelming amount of eyes serves that.”

—Didier William, 2019

Soft Network’s Fall exhibition features mixed media paintings and works on paper from the Estate of Paul Gardère paired with prints by Didier William. This project is an expansion on the recent solo presentation of work by Paul Gardère at Independent 20th Century. This is Soft Network’s inaugural presentation at our new shared space with Rachel Comey.

Gardère, born in 1944, and William, born in 1983, both immigrated from Port-au-Prince, Haiti to the United States in their youth, bringing with them the complex legacies of Haitian visual culture, myth and Kreyòl language. Their shared experiences navigating multiple identities as part of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora are reflected in the ways they each depict the dualities and contradictions of —as Gardère states— "abandoning the notion of a fixed center” and “being in several places at once.” Both artists adapt veve symbols and use wood, vibrant colors and rich textures to present landscapes and bodies as territories that are, at once, contested and coalescing.

As light shimmers out from fields of red, green and purple glitter in Gardère’s work, likewise William’s strong figures cloaked in eyes and glistening marks evoke the spirits —Iwa— and reward close examination. The liminal spaces gracefully and attentively assembled in each artist’s compositions also invite viewers to contemplate, connect and weave relationships out of dissonance and disassemble dominance.

A new multicolor intaglio print made by William with renowned downtown Manhattan workshop and publisher Harlan & Weaver titled Cursed Grounds, Blessed Bones is on view for the first time, accompanied by a previously unexhibited, untitled gouache portrait made by Gardère in 1991 following his residency at The Studio Museum in Harlem.

In keeping with Soft Network’s aim to create dialogue between contemporary artists and artist estates, this project brings Gardère’s re-emerging legacy into conversation with William’s thriving interdisciplinary practice. What is revealed is a visually striking, intergenerational exchange about topics and concerns of remarkable pertinence.

With gratitude to Cat Gardère, Didier William and James Fuentes.