Firelei Báez (born 1981) is a Dominican artist based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

known for intricate works on paper and canvas, as well as large scale sculpture. Her art explores the Western canon through the elements of

non-Western The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

reading. Báez's work has been exhibited at the New Museum, New York, NY, the

Pérez Art Museum Miami The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Museum Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Center for t ...

, Miami, Florida, Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art is a teaching museum on the campus of Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was c ...

, Clinton, New York, the Drawing Center, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York and the Studio Museum, New York, New York. Her work was featured in the United States Biennial Prospect.3 in New Orleans, Louisiana, curated by Franklin Sirmans. She was included in Getty's Pacific Standard Time's LA>LA exhibition, and in the Pinchuk Art Foundation's Future Generation's Art Prize exhibition at the 2017

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. She has been the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Award, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Award in Painting, the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting, and the Chiaro Award from the Headlands. In 2015, Perez Art Museum Miami organized ''Firelei Báez: Bloodlines'', with an introduction by the museum's Director, Franklin Sirmans, an essay by Assistant Curator María Elena Ortiz, an interview with Naima Keith, and a contribution by the writer

Roxane Gay Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of ''The New York Times'' best-selling essay collection '' Bad Feminist'' (2014), as well as the short story collection ''Ayit ...

Early life and education

Born in Santiago de Los Caballeros to a Dominican mother and a father of Haitian descent, she was raised in

Dajabón Dajabón is a municipality and capital of the Dajabón province in the Dominican Republic, which is located on the northwestern Dominican Republic frontier with Haiti. It is a market town with a population of about 26,000, north of the Cordiller ...

, a market city on the Dominican Republic's border with Haiti. At the age of 10, she relocated with her family to Miami. Báez received an M.F.A. from Hunter College and a B.F.A. from Cooper Union and studied at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

Career

In fall of 2015, Báez secured exposure with the solo museum shows “Patterns of Resistance” at the

Utah Museum of Contemporary Art The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), formerly known as the Salt Lake Art Center, is a contemporary art museum. Located in Downtown Salt Lake City, the museum presents rotating exhibitions by local, national and international contemporary ...

and “Bloodlines” at Perez Art Museum Miami. In February 2016, Báez created a participatory installation with museum patrons at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. The program was presented in conjunction with the exhibition “The Power of Prints: The Legacy of William M. Ivins and

A. Hyatt Mayor Alpheus Hyatt Mayor (1901–1980) was an American art historian and curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a leading figure in the study of prints, both old master prints and popular prints. A. Hyatt Mayor's father was marine biologist Alfre ...

". The installation itself remained on display through March of that year. In 2018, she was commissioned by the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

to install two wall murals and two mezzanine level murals for the 163 St-Amsterdam Avenue subway station.

Exhibitions

Báez has participated in several solo exhibitions and shows in the United States and internationally. Her solo shows include ''Psycho*Pomp'' (2012), Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery,

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12 ...

; ''Firelei Báez: Bloodlines'' (2015),

; ''Firelei Báez: Joy Out of Fire'' (2018), Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Brooklyn Museum, New York; ''The Modern Window: For Améthyste and Athénaire (Exiled Muses Beyond Jean Luc Nancy’s Canon), Anaconas'' (2018-2019),

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York; and ''Firelei Báez'' (2021), ICA Watershed,

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple na ...

. She has also participated in a number of group shows and exhibitions, including

El Museo del Barrio El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo (the museum), is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the Cit ...

Biennial (2011-2012),

Prospect New Orleans Prospect New Orleans is a multi-venue contemporary art event in New Orleans. "Prospect.1 New Orleans" ran from November 2008 to January 2009. Conceived in the tradition of the international biennials, such as the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Bienn ...

(2014), and the

Berlin Biennale The Berlin Biennale (full name: Berlin Biennale für zeitgenössische Kunst, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art) is a contemporary art exhibition, which has been held at various locations in Berlin, Germany, every two to three years since 1998. T ...

(2018).

Grants, awards, and residencies

Báez has been awarded numerous grants, fellowships, and accolades, including the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their underst ...

Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work (2018), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020), and the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

for visual arts (2021).

Notable works in public collections

*''Amidst the future and present there is a memory table'' (2013),

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

, Clinton, New York *''To see beyond it and to access the places that we know outside its walls'' (2015),

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st centur ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

*''Of Love Possessed (lessons on alterity for G.D. and F.G at a local BSS)'' (2016), Spelman College Museum of Fine Art,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

*''To Access the Places that Lie Beyond'' (2017),

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...

, Kansas City, Missouri *''Elegant gathering in a secluded garden (or the many bridges we crossed)'' (2018), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York *''Those who would douse it (it does not disturb me to accept that there are places where my identity is obscure to me, and the fact that it amazes you does not mean I relinquish it)'' (2018),

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is an art museum in central Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, opened 1994. It presents modern and contemporary art and is financed by the ''Kunststiftung Volkswagen.'' It takes up aspects of the industrial city of Wolfsburg, whic ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

*''An Open Horizon (or the stillness of a wound)'' (2019), Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Orlando, Florida *''Tignon for Ayda Weddo (or that which a center can not hold)'' (2019),

Nasher Museum of Art The Nasher Museum of Art (previously the Duke University Museum of Art) is the art museum of Duke University, and is located on Duke's campus in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The Nasher, along with Dartmouth's Hood Museum of Art and Pr ...

, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina *''the trace, whether we are attending to it or not (a space for each other’s breathing)'' (2019),

New Orleans Museum of Art The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the ...

*''Untitled (Central Power Station)'' (2019),

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

References

External links

Studio Visit: Firelei Baez, MoMA Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baez, Firelei Dominican Republic women artists 1981 births Hunter College alumni Cooper Union alumni Living people 21st-century American women artists Hispanic and Latino American artists