Widline Cadet presents her first solo U.S. museum exhibition, "Currents 40: Widline Cadet," at the Milwaukee Art Museum, on view through August 9. The show features her hypnotic triptych of photographs, her debut photography book "Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)," and works across photography, installation, video, and ceramic that explore Black femininity, Haitian folklore, and the immigrant experience. Cadet, born in Haiti and raised in New York, has gained prominence through residencies at the Studio Museum in Harlem and publications in The New Yorker and Aperture Magazine.
The exhibition matters because it marks a significant milestone for a rising contemporary photographer whose work complements the museum's extensive Haitian art collection, gifted by Richard and Erna Flagg. Curator Kristen Gaylord championed the show, noting an "institutional marriage" between Cadet's experimental style and the museum's holdings. The show positions Milwaukee as a platform for a nationally recognized artist whose work addresses Black diasporic life and migration, and it highlights the museum's commitment to contextualizing its Haitian collection with contemporary voices.