|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Deering Estate Artist-in-Residence and Emmy-award winning filmmaker Marlon Johnson presents The Retrofit, an interdisciplinary series inside the Deering Estate theater.
The Retrofit is a five-part multimedia film and live performance series at the intersection of the arts, natural environment, and social equity. The Retrofit is a campaign to reimagine spaces and expressions while celebrating a shared foundation.
Hosted by Miami native Carla Hill and curated by Marlon Johnson, this series champions the transformative power of the arts through storytelling and invites audiences along for the ride.
This iteration of The Retrofit will feature a screening of Marlon Johnson’s film San Padon created in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami and The University of Miami – School of Communication and Center for Global Black Studies. San Padon was featured in the exhibition Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè, curated by Erica Moiah James, PhD. The film goes beyond an artistic portrait, and explores Didier’s process, his materials, evolving ideas, prismatic identity, and the foundational places that have mattered the most to him.
For Johnson, “the film connects with my belief in the transformative power of the arts in our lives, the urgency of social equity, and the metaphorical potential of the natural world.
Didier’s paintings draw inspiration from social and personal nightmares, as well as Florida’s landscape…at times exploring tangles of mangrove-like roots twisting beneath tranquil streets while his Rubenesque figures, suspended mid-flight or mid-fall, are covered in what at first seems akin to rough richly colored bark like that of the Gumbo-Limbo tree but are in fact hundreds of tiny eyes that Didier has carved into the surface of his paintings.
There’s joy, humor, and respect in the paintings as well with their vivid saturated colors and the powerful homage to Haiti in his Kreyol language titles.”
Marlon Johnson is the Charles Deering McCormick Fellow of the Deering Estate’s Artist-in-Residence program. The fellowship is sponsored in part by the Deering Estate Foundation and the Charles Deering McCormick Friends of Art Fund.
Didier William is originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He earned an BFA in painting from The Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University School of Art. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Bronx Museum of Art, Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, Museum at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Carnegie Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and Figge Art Museum. He is represented by James Fuentes Gallery in New York and Altman Siegel Gallery in San Francisco.
William was an artist-in-residence at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation in Brooklyn, NY; a 2018 recipient of the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a 2020 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grants; a 2021 recipient of a Pew Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and a 2023 recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant.
He has taught at several institutions including Yale School of Art, Vassar College, Columbia University, UPenn, and SUNY Purchase. He is currently assistant professor of Expanded Print at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
Hosted by Carla Hill, The Retrofit program is on Saturday, June 17. Orature by Deering Estate Artist-in-Residence Dr. Keshia Abraham, and a Q&A with artist Didier William to follow the film screening.
The screening and performance will take place indoors inside the Deering Estate theatre on Saturday, June 17. The show starts at 4 p.m. Doors will open 15 minutes prior to start time. A complimentary cocktail hour will be outdoors with live music from 3 to 4 p.m.
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online. For more information visit the Deering Estate website at https://deeringestate.org/event/the-retro-fit/.
Deering Estate is located at 16701 SW 72 Ave. in Palmetto Bay.
ABOUT US:
For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. Miami’s Community Newspapers offers daily news, online resources, podcasts and other multimedia content to keep readers informed. With topics ranging from local news to community events, Miami’s Community Newspapers is the ideal source for staying up to date with the latest news and happenings in the area. Additionally, the newspaper has exclusive Miami community podcasts, providing listeners with an in-depth look into Miami’s culture. Whether you’re looking for local Miami news, or podcasts about the community, Miami’s Community Newspapers has you covered.
