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 U ...

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 Museum, New York, NY, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, Florida, Taller Puertorriqueño, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Clinton, New York, the Drawing Center, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, New York and Studio Museum in Harlem, the Studio Museum, New York, New York. Her work was featured in the United States Biennial Prospect New Orleans, 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. 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, Pérez Art Museum Miami, 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.

Early life and education

Born in Santiago de Los Caballeros to a Dominican mother and a father of Haitians, Haitian descent, she was raised in Dajabón, 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 The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Cooper Union and studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 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 and “Bloodlines” at Pérez Art Museum Miami, Perez Art Museum Miami. In February 2016, Báez created a participatory installation with museum patrons at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The program was presented in conjunction with the exhibition “The Power of Prints: The Legacy of William Ivins Jr., William M. Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor". The installation itself remained on display through March of that year. In 2018, she was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to install two wall murals and two mezzanine level murals for the 163 St-Amsterdam Avenue Metro station, 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; ''Firelei Báez: Bloodlines'' (2015), Pérez Art Museum Miami; ''Firelei Báez: Joy Out of Fire'' (2018), Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Brooklyn Museum, New York City, New York; ''The Modern Window: For Améthyste and Athénaire (Exiled Muses Beyond Jean Luc Nancy’s Canon), Anaconas'' (2018-2019), Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York; and ''Firelei Báez'' (2021), Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston#ICA_Watershed, ICA Watershed, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. She has also participated in a number of group shows and exhibitions, including El Museo del Barrio Biennial (2011-2012), Prospect New Orleans (2014), and the Berlin Biennale (2018).

Grants, awards, and residencies

Báez has been awarded numerous grants, fellowships, and accolades, including the College Art Association Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work (2018), a Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020), and the American Academy in Rome Philip Guston Rome Prize for visual arts (2021).

Notable works in public collections

*''Amidst the future and present there is a memory table'' (2013), Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College (New York), Hamilton College, Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York *''To see beyond it and to access the places that we know outside its walls'' (2015), San Jose Museum of Art, California *''Of Love Possessed (lessons on alterity for G.D. and F.G at a local BSS)'' (2016), Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta *''To Access the Places that Lie Beyond'' (2017), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri *''Elegant gathering in a secluded garden (or the many bridges we crossed)'' (2018), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, 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, Germany *''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, 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 *''Untitled (Central Power Station)'' (2019), Dallas Museum of 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