This collection of works represents Will Felix’s journey of self-discovery and his quest to connect with the world around him. Throughout there has been an ongoing exploration of color, depth, movement, and narrative beyond the obvious.
The works inform a path towards self-acceptance, which wasn’t immediately evident. For one, Will sought to downplay his Haitian heritage for most of his life, due to the troubling connotations attached, deservedly so or not, to the country. Upon his father’s death there in 2024 (after being chased from his home by gangs that had taken over the region), there was a reckoning. Will came to understand that much of the aesthetic underpinnings of his paintings came from his experience with the troubled island, where he visited and lived for a good part of his youth.
In the 25 years of this retrospective, Will has lived in 4 major areas: Central Florida, where his mother and brother also lived at the time; the New York City area where he is originally from; Northeast Ohio, where he went to college; and his current home state of Virginia. Each area had a unique effect on his art.
The Orlando Period (1999-2000)
The Orlando Period (1999-2000), during which he hung out with a group of artists and poets at a coffee shop in town, and eventually formed a group called OVAL (Orlando Visual Arts League), was the beginning of establishing a visual narrative and participating in exhibitions. Pieces like “Passion” began the frenetic brushstrokes, high key colors. and symbolist abstraction that carries through most of his work. The painting, loosely representing a hibiscus flower similar to those that grew in front of his home in Haiti, was once described by a journalist as an exploded penis.
The NYC Period (2001-2004)
The New York Period (2001-2004) was a rite of passage. Returning to NYC was in part driven by the hope of establishing an art career there in earnest. Many trips to Chelsea galleries along with the MOMA, the Whitney, and the Met served as an education from the Modern Masters (particularly Picasso and Kandinsky), as well as witnessing the success of his peers, mostly in the conceptual realm. The events of September 11 were also instrumental, with the trauma of that day showing in works like “Humility.”
The Ohio Period (2005-2011)
Personal pressures forced a move back to Ohio, though the effort was made to maintain the momentum of artwork being done. The Ohio Period (2005-2011) was one of experimentation and cooperation with other artists, leading to another art collective called Apollonova. The key aspect with this group were the live group paintings, accompanied by DJ’s, with the finished product raffled off at the end of the night. This provided exposure as well as vitality to all involved. After a divorce and a particularly bad breakup, Will came up with the mixed media “One” series; creating an “album” with multilayered art pieces as music and written words as lyrics.
The Virginia Period (2012-2024)
The Virginia period (2012-2024) saw the transition towards digital painting. This brought forth a freedom to explore ideas without the constraints of traditional materials, while continuing to explore symbolism through painterly abstraction. Following the lead of masters like David Hockney, and how installation art has changed the ways that artworks are presented and accepted, Will fully embraced the new medium and presented new commentaries on the art world such as the “Afrika” series (exploring the African-ness of an African-American identity) and the “Skandinavia” series (examining cultural appropriation from a reversed view).
While shunning the emphasis on visual representation that tends to be prevalent in black art, there are recurring symbols of identity in Will’s work. The chimera (a term which in itself has several definitions) repeats in several pieces, and has replaced earlier attempts at self-portraiture. Will has also sought to explore the more introspective aspects of black identity (as in the “Afrika” series) while paying homage to abstract masters such as Norman Lewis and Kara Walker.
His use of symbolic abstraction ties closely with the Haitian surrealist “naïve” art first acknowledged globally in the mid 20th century. This connection is evident throughout this retrospective, and will become more so in upcoming endeavors.