
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (New Chart of the Windward Passages), 2020
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
66 x 86 1/4 in
167.6 x 219.1 cm
JCG11256
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (Insularum Hispaniolae et Cubae), 2020
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
64 x 80 in
162.6 x 203.2 cm
JCG11258
FIRELEI BÁEZ
On rest and resistance, Because we love you (to all those stolen from among us), 2020
Oil and acrylic on canvas
48 x 60 in
121.9 x 152.4 cm
JCG11573
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (Temple of Time), 2020
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
94 1/2 x 132 3/8 x 1 5/8 in
240 x 336.2 x 4 cm
JCG11295
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (United States Marine Hospital), 2019
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
100 x 127 1/2 x 1 3/4 in
254 x 323.9 x 4.4 cm
(JCG11077)
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (Baubo), 2020
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
86 3/4 x 132 3/4 x 1 5/8 in
220.3 x 337 x 4 cm
(JCG11287)
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (Anacaona), 2020
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
96 3/8 x 127 3/8 in
244.6 x 323.5 cm
(JCG11257)
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (Flow of merchandise in France on railways and waterways in the year 1856)
2020
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
78 x 60 5/8 in
198.1 x 154 cm
(JCG11292)
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (Le Jeu du Monde), 2020
Oil and acrylic on archival printed canvas
105 x 131 3/4 x 1 5/8 in
266.7 x 334.5 x 4 cm
(JCG11288)
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Convex (recalibrating a blind spot)
2019
Acrylic and oil on archival printed canvas
96 7/8 x 124 5/8 in
246.1 x 316.5 cm
(JCG11032)
FIRELEI BÁEZ
19.604692°N 72.218596°W
2019
Commissioned by the High Line as a part of En Plein Air, April 2019 – March 2020
Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the High Line.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
19.604692°N 72.218596°W
2019
Commissioned by the High Line as a part of En Plein Air, April 2019 – March 2020
Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of the High Line.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways)
2019
Two paintings, hand-painted wooden frame, perforated tarp, printed mesh, handmade paper over found objects, plants, books, Oman incense, palo santo
373 1/4 x 447 x 157 in
JCG10437
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Tignon for Ayda Weddo (or that which a center can not hold)
2019
Acrylic and oil on archival printed canvas
91 1/2 x 114 1/4 in
JCG10459
FIRELEI BÁEZ
the trace, whether we are attending to it or not (a space for each other's breathing)
2019
Acrylic, oil, and transfer on archival printed canvas
90 x 114 3/8 in
228.6 x 290.5 cm
JCG10455
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Untitled (Central Power Station)
2019
Acrylic and oil on archival printed canvas
96 7/8 x 124 5/8 in
JCG10432
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Chrono-DREAMer
2019
Acrylic and oil on archival printed canvas
72 x 48 in
JCG10251
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Beauty as a practice (to see in discrete angles and blocks)
2019
Acrylic, oil, and transfer on archival printed canvas
89 x 114 3/8 in
JCG10457
FIRELEI BÁEZ
An open horizon (or the stillness of a wound)
2019
Acrylic and oil on archival printed canvas
89 1/2 x 114 in
JCG10458
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Je bâtis a roches mon langage, 2019
Perforated tarp, printed mesh, artificial and real plants; two paintings:
For Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur (a reconstituted echo, to be spoken, complete), 2019, Acrylic and oil on canvas, frame
Errantry (a minor key that alters the structure of the major form within), 2019, Oil, acrylic, and gold foil on canvas
Installation view: Firelei Báez, new work, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, 27 January - 12 May 2019
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Je bâtis a roches mon langage, 2019
Perforated tarp, printed mesh, artificial and real plants; two paintings:
For Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur (a reconstituted echo, to be spoken, complete), 2019, Acrylic and oil on canvas, frame
Errantry (a minor key that alters the structure of the major form within), 2019, Oil, acrylic, and gold foil on canvas
Installation view: Firelei Báez, new work, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, 27 January - 12 May 2019
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Coqueta (history composed of ruptures)
2019
Arylic and oil on canvas
90 x 114 in
JCG10294
FIRELEI BÁEZ
May 19, 2017, 6:05 p.m. (an idiom playing out its history)
2018
Oil, oil stick and graphite over canvas
92 x 120 inches
JCG10227
FIRELEI BÁEZ
For Améthyste and Athénaïre (Exiled Muses Beyond Jean Luc Nancy’s Canon), Anacaonas
2018
Oil on canvas and wood panel, hand-painted frames
Installation view: The Modern Window: Firelei Báez, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018-2019
Digital Image © 2018 The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Photographed by John Wronn
FIRELEI BÁEZ
For Améthyste and Athénaïre (Exiled Muses Beyond Jean Luc Nancy’s Canon), Anacaonas
2018
Oil on canvas and wood panel, hand-painted frames
120 x 252 inches
Installation view: The Modern Window: Firelei Báez, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018-2019
Photograph by Kurt Heumiller
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Ramo de Fuego (so the songs could speak)
2019
Oil on canvas
72 x 60 inches
JCG10252
FIRELEI BÁEZ
can you not see that we are implicated in its evolution?, 2017
Oil on canvas
84 x 60 in
213.4 x 152.4 cm
(JCG11395)
FIRELEI BÁEZ
For Marie-Louise Coidavid, exiled, keeper of order, Anacaona, 2017
Oil on canvas
84 x 60 in
213.4 x 152.4 cm
(ZNI0337)
Photo: Amy Pearman, Boyd Pearman Photography
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Man Without a Country (aka anthropophagist wading in the Artibonite River)
2014-15
Gouache, ink and chine-collé on 220 deaccessioned book pages
106 ¼ x 252 in.
Firelei Báez: Bloodlines, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), FL, 15 October 2015 - 6 March 2016
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Detail: Man Without a Country (aka anthropophagist wading in the Artibonite River)
2014-15
Gouache, ink and chine-collé on 220 deaccessioned book pages
106 ¼ x 252 in.
Firelei Báez: Bloodlines, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), FL, 15 October 2015 - 6 March 2016
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Installation view: Ciguapa Antellana, me llamo sueño de la madrugada (who more sci-fi than us)
2018
Glass mosaic
Permanent commission: MTA Arts & Design, 163 St-Amsterdam Av Station, Washington Heights, New York, NY
Commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design. Photo: Osheen Harruthoonyan.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Installation view: Ciguapa Antellana, me llamo sueño de la madrugada (who more sci-fi than us)
2018
Glass mosaic
Permanent commission: MTA Arts & Design, 163 St-Amsterdam Av Station, Washington Heights, New York, NY
Commissioned by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts & Design. Photo: Osheen Harruthoonyan.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
for Marie-Louise Coidavid, exiled, keeper of order, Anacaona
2018
Oil on canvas
Installation view: 10th Berlin Biennale, Akademie der Künste (Hanseatenweg), Berlin, June 9 - September 9, 2018
Photo: Timo Ohler
FIRELEI BÁEZ
19° 36’ 16.89“ N, 72° 13’ 6.95“ W) / (52.4042° N, 13.0385° E
2018
Acrylic, sheetrock, steel
Installation view: 10th Berlin Biennale, Akademie der Künste (Hanseatenweg), Berlin, June 9 - September 9, 2018
Photo: Timo Ohler
FIRELEI BÁEZ
19° 36’ 16.89“ N, 72° 13’ 6.95“ W) / (52.4042° N, 13.0385° E
2018
Acrylic, sheetrock, steel
Installation view: 10th Berlin Biennale, Akademie der Künste (Hanseatenweg), Berlin, June 9 - September 9, 2018
Photo: Timo Ohler
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Given the ground ( the fact that it amazes me does not mean I relinquish it), An irreducible singularity (speaking to the space you fill and you keep)
2017
Acrylic and oil on canvas
Installation view: Future Generation Art Prize, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, May 13 - September 26, 2017
FIRELEI BÁEZ
DREAMer (a demand for opacity that weaves no boundaries)
2017
Acrylic and oil on canvas
Installation view: Future Generation Art Prize, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, May 13 - September 26, 2017
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Installation view: Firelei Báez: Bloodlines, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, February 17 – May 21, 2017
Photo: Abby Warhola
FIRELEI BÁEZ
A Fever, a daydream
2017
Acrylic on canvas
40 x 64 in.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
To See Beyond Its Walls (and access the places that lie beyond)
2017
Installation view: Firelei Báez: To See Beyond Its Walls (and access the places that lie beyond), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, August 2017 - June 2018
Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection
Museum purchase made possible by a gift from the R. C. Kemper Charitable Trust
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Collector of shouts (April 21)
2016
Acrylic on Yupo paper
79 x 60 in.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
a name that doesn't exist
2016
Acrylic on canvas
72 x 60 in
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Goldie (in Clio's presence)
2016
Acrylic on canvas
72 x 36 in.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Can I Pass? Introducing the Paper Bag to the Fan Test for the Month of June
2011
Gouache, ink and graphite on panel
96 1/8 x 107 in.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Four of the sun (or the talking cure)
2016
Acrylic on Yupo paper
38 x 30 in.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
A modest mythology of walls
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 48 in.
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Sans-Souci (This Threshold between a dematerialized and a historicized body)
2015
Acrylic and ink on linen
108 x 74 inches
FIRELEI BÁEZ
Ciguapa Pantera (to all the goods and pleasures of this world)
2015
Acrylic and ink on paper
95 × 65 in.
Rendering her subjects in complex layers of pattern and imagery, New York-based artist Firelei Báez casts cultural and regional histories into an imaginative realm, where visual references drawn from the past are reconfigured to explore new possibilities for the future. In exuberantly colorful works on paper and canvas, large-scale sculptures, and immersive installations, Báez combines representational cues that span from hair textures to textile patterns, plantlife, folkloric and literary references, and wide-ranging emblems of healing and resistance. Often featuring strong female protagonists, Baez’s portraits incorporate the visual languages of regionally-specific mythology and ritual alongside those of science fiction and fantasy, to envision identities as unfixed, and inherited stories as perpetually-evolving. These empowered figures’ eyes most often engage directly with the viewer, asserting individuality and agency within their states of flux.
Born in Santiago de los Caballeros to a Dominican mother and a father of Haitian descent, Firelei Báez’s concerns with the politics of place and heritage can be traced back to her own upbringing on the border between Hispaniola’s two neighboring countries, whose longstanding history of tension is predicated in large part by ethnic difference. Báez’s work ties together subject matter mined from a wide breadth of diasporic narratives. In addition to self-portraiture, past series have examined ciguapas, elusive and cunning female creatures from Dominican folklore; tignons, head-coverings women of color were legally required to wear in 18th century New Orleans; and the iconography of the Black Panther Movement. Báez often paints directly onto historical material, such as found maps, manuals, and travelogues, layering figures over them. By rendering spectacular bodies that exist on opposite sides of intersecting boundaries—between human and landscape, for example, or those reinforcing racial and class stratification—Báez carries portraiture into an in-between space, where subjectivity is rooted in cultural and colonial narratives as much as it can likewise become untethered by them.
Firelei Báez (b. 1981, Dominican Republic) received an M.F.A. from Hunter College, a B.F.A. from the Cooper Union’s School of Art, and studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Báez is shortlisted for Artes Mundi 9 in 2020, and will be the subject of a solo presentation at the ICA Watershed, Boston, MA this summer. In 2019, the artist's work was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Mennello Museum of Art, Orlando, FL, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and the Modern Window at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her monumental outdoor sculpture, 19.604692°N 72.218596°W, is currently included in En Plein Air, the 2019 High Line Art exhibition. Báez was featured in the 2018 Berlin Biennale, Prospect.3: Notes for Now (2014), Bronx Calling: The Second AIM Biennial (2013), and El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files (2011). Her major 2015 solo exhibition Bloodlines was organized by the Pérez Art Museum Miami and travelled to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
Other recent solo exhibitions of Báez’s work have been presented by The Studio Museum, Harlem, NY; Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, OH; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Taller Puertorriqueno, Philadelphia, PA; and Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT. She has an upcoming solo exhibition at the ICA Watershed. Báez is the recipient of many awards: most recently, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2020), the Soros Arts Fellowship (2019), the United States Artists Fellowship (2019), the College Art Association Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work (2018), the Future Generation Art Prize (2017), the Chiaro Award (2016), and Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors (2011). Her work belongs to the permanent collections of institutions including The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL; BNY Mellon Art Collection, Pittsburgh, PA; The Cleveland Clinic Fine Art Collection, Cleveland, OH; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; The Isabela and Agustín Coppel Collection, Mexico City, Mexico; Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; Mandeville Gallery, Union College, Schenectady, NY; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; Orlando Museum of Art, FL; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; Pizzuti Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, OH; Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; Sindika Dokolo Foundation Collection, Luanda, Angola; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.