2019 Catalogue Archive

Dominican-born Firelei Báez draws from her own Afro-Caribbean culture to create lush, empowering narratives that incorporate socio-political themes. Exploring the various ways identity is formed by inherent histories and geography, her works use colors, design elements, and motifs indicative of her country’s collective aesthetic. Here, a figure with a lavishly dissolving face and body is made up of the same colors found in the floral patterning that engulfs thick rolls of hair atop the sitter’s head. Pastel colors form a portrait that searches for collective representation, an earnest image of a figure with a probing gaze. Báez’s work is the subject of a current solo exhibition at the Mennello Museum of Art, Orlando, and her monumental outdoor sculpture, 19.604692°N 72.218596°W, is included in En Plein Air, the 2019 High Line Art exhibition, New York. Báez was recently shortlisted for Artes Mundi 9, National Museum Cardiff.