Currents 40: Widline Cadet

Cadet joined exhibition curator Kristen Gaylord, Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts, to discuss when she fell in love with photography, why it’s special to present this series at MAM, and more.

In May, the Milwaukee Art Museum presents Widline Cadet’s first solo exhibition in the United States as part of its long-running Currents series. Currents 40: Widline Cadet brings together the full presentation of Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)—an ambitious body of work spanning photography, video, and installation that explores Black diasporic life through migration, memory, and lived experience.

Rooted in photography yet expanded through unconventional display and spatial strategies, Cadet’s work challenges how images are seen and remembered, weaving personal history with collective narratives. As she prepared for this landmark debut, Cadet sat down with exhibition curator Kristen Gaylord to discuss building a living archive, rethinking photographic traditions, and what it means to see the past and present coexist in the gallery.

KG: Your training is in photography, but, like so many contemporary artists, you seem to both deeply understand and appreciate that medium while also pushing against its boundaries. How did you come to photography, and what about it as a visual language do you find gratifying and frustrating?

WC: I started photography in high school and from there I’ve never been able to stop doing it. I’ve always loved art in general. Painting, drawing, manga, and anime were my entryway into it, but I took a black-and-white darkroom photography class, and it just opened up something in my mind and I’ve been in love with the medium since then. In the beginning I was mesmerized by the whole analogue process of shooting something, developing the film, and seeing the images appear on the paper—it felt like magic. Even though I’m not shooting in film as much now, I still get that same sense of magic through thinking up images to make and working towards making that image come to life. I also think it’s because of this love/obsession that I get so excited about photography and wanting to know and do everything I can with it. Through that pursuit I’ve reached certain limits of what it can do for me. But then I find as much as I’m frustrated by the limits, I’m also excited by them and trying to push beyond them.

KG: As the full debut of your project Seremoni Disparisyon, this show includes work made between 2017 and 2026. What has it been like to bring together all these photographs for the exhibition?

WC: It’s been amazing to look at the full breadth of the work. When I first started making these images, I was in grad school and struggling to figure out what kind of work I wanted to make, but I just kept going one photograph at a time without knowing if they would amount to anything. Some eight years later, I’m finally at a point where I feel like this body of work is finished and in looking at it all together, I get to see the transformations that happened and the ways that making this body of work has changed not only my practice, but also my life.

Widline Cadet (Haitian, b. 1992), *Sé sou ou mwen mété espwa m #3 (I Put All My Hopes on You #3)*, 2021. Inkjet prints. 50 × 40 × 2 in. (127 × 101.6 × 5.08 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, purchase, with funds from the Lucia K. Stern Trust. © Widline Cadet

Widline Cadet (Haitian, b. 1992), *Yon etranje ki pa sanble youn #2 (A Stranger Who Doesn’t Look Like One #2)*, 2019. Inkjet print. 40 × 32 × 2 in. (101.6 × 81.28 × 5.08 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, purchase, with funds from the Lucia K. Stern Trust. © Widline Cadet

KG: As you know, MAM has one of the most important collections of mid-century Haitian art in the world. What excites you about having your first U.S. museum solo show in the same building?

WC: It feels pretty special to be here and to have my work in dialogue with the art I grew up seeing as a kid in Haiti, and which continue to influence me today. I remember the first time I saw the collection at MAM. It was my first time seeing a large collection of Haitian work in any museum. It felt so familiar and welcoming and that’s something I want my exhibition to do for others.

Widline Cadet (b. 1992, Pétion-Ville, Ayiti) earned her MFA from Syracuse University after completing her BA in studio art from the City College of New York. Her work has been exhibited and published widely and resides in numerous private and public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; and Milwaukee Art Museum.

She has received numerous awards and fellowships, including from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2025), the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (2020), and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2018). Her first monograph, Ritual [Dis]Appearance / Seremoni disparisyon, was published by Black Mountains Studio in May 2025. Cadet lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.

Learn more about the exhibition and related programs at mam.org/widline-cadet.

Widline Cadet Member Preview Day + Celebration
Thurs, May 7, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
Open to all Members
Enjoy exclusive first access to the exhibition before it opens to the public. Join us in the evening for a cash bar, live music, and an opening conversation with Widline Cadet in Lubar Auditorium.

Member Mingle + Artist Talk: Widline Cadet
Thurs, July 16, 5–7:15 p.m.
Open to all Members
Enjoy a drink from the cash bar (complimentary for Art Advocate level Members and above) before hearing from exhibition artist Widline Cadet at 6:15 p.m. in Lubar Auditorium.

RSVP at mam.org/reservations of 414-224-3284.