MOCA Celebrates Three Exhibitions During Miami Art Week 2022

Photography by World Red Eye on December 1st, 2022 in Miami Art Week 2022

Miami, FL – December 1, 2022 – The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (MOCA) celebrated its newest exhibitions, “Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè,” Leah Gordon’s “Kanaval,” and Chire “VantaBlack” Regans “To What Lengths” on Thursday, Dec. 1 during Miami Art Week. Art patrons browsed the exhibitions while enjoying live music, cocktails and canapés in MOCA’s Paradise Courtyard with MOCA’s Executive Director Chana Sheldon, artists Didier William, Leah Gordon and VantaBlack, and Curators Adeze Wilford and Erica Moiah James, Ph.D. A Ceremony of Salutation and Libations was performed by Tanayiz Bertrand followed by a performance from the traditional Haitian Rara band, Rara Lakay.

“Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè” (on view through April 16, 2023) is the largest solo presentation of Didier William’s career. Translated as “We’ve Left That All Behind,” the show presents an in-depth look at the Haitian-born, North Miami-raised artist’s career and memory among the very neighborhood where he once grew up.

In a blend of personal reflections, biographical anecdotes, and art historical moments, some of the works in the show recontextualize historical iconographies and ideas, stripping them of their “known” truths and transforming each into something entirely new. By doing so, William playfully and unapologetically reclaims autonomy over a fragmented record of history, engaging his personal connection to the complexity of immigrant narratives and queer identity to create opportunity for investigation and redemption.

Also, on view through April 16, 2023 is “Kanaval,” a survey by photographer, filmmaker, curator, and writer Leah Gordon that documents twenty years of Carnival in Haiti. Curated by MOCA Curator Adeze Wilford, the exhibition consists of a series of black-and-white photographs taken on a mechanical medium format camera.

The images are contextualized by a series of oral histories relayed by various troupe leaders, who also oversee the design of the costume and generate the narratives surrounding Carnival. Their stories reflect the wealth of invention, fable, and self-generated mythology prevalent in much of Haitian culture. The photographs will be accompanied by a new feature-length documentary on the Carnival providing a kinetic counterpoint to the portraits.

Also on view is VantaBlack’s “To What Lengths,” which is open to the public on MOCA Plaza through Jan. 20, 2023. Selected in MOCA’s 2022 Open Call to artists for its “Art on the Plaza” series, “To What Lengths” showcases a key component of VantaBlack’s artistic practice by reflecting on legacy building and preservation as foundational to Black culture and other diasporic peoples. The South Florida-based artist explores how ideas about legacy are woven into everyday actions by activating five palm trees on the MOCA Plaza with large-scale braids, adorned with beads, metal, and artificial sunflowers and gardenias. The braids of each tree follow stylings representative of the women in VantaBlack’s family.