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Firelei Báez, To See Beyond: Contemporary Art Center | Cincinnati, OH

Past exhibition
18 May - 19 August 2018
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  • Works
  • Installation Views
  • Press
Overview
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
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

"There's a fluidity of color, of race, in the Caribbean … In America, you're black.” Caribbean-born, Brooklyn-based artist Firelei Báez navigates a broad spectrum of color, race and identity in her first Ohio exhibition. Born in the Dominican Republic to Dominican and Haitian parents, she immigrated to the United States in 1990 and was increasingly troubled by the restraints of her ethnicity wedged within confining American designations. To re-animate the beautiful complexity of being Afro-Latina and invite a greater congregation of cultural traditions, Báez creates intricate paintings, murals, sculpture and works on paper that brim with vibrant patterns and political agency.

 

Aiming to re-open perceptions with enchanted worlds of colorful avatars, she explains, “I try to disrupt the current system of social categorization through the creation of characters that refuse definition. As more people become multiracial, skin tone is no longer a sufficient signifier.” With a self-proclaimed interest in the craft and form traditionally thought of as “women’s work” (i.e. textiles, jewelry, ceramics), she channels the history of ornamentation and fashion as acts of resistance among women of the African Diaspora. In concert with added dimensions of anthropology, folklore, science fiction and mythology, Báez’s art offers a fantastical vision within increasingly diverse societies. This exhibition will marry important past works with a number of recent works and a kaleidoscopic new wall painting.

  • Official Contemporary Art Center Site
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Works
  • 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
    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
Installation Views
  • Fireleibaezcac 1
  • Fireleibaezcac 4
  • Fireleibaezcac 2
  • Fireleibaezcac 6
  • Fireleibaezcac 5
  • Fireleibaezcac 7
  • Fireleibaezcac 3
  • Fireleibaezcac 9
  • Fireleibaezcac 8
  • Fireleibaezcac 11
  • Fireleibaezcac 13
  • Fireleibaezcac 10
  • Fireleibaezcac 15
  • Fireleibaezcac 14
  • Fireleibaezcac 12
Press
  • TWO NEW SHOWS AT CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER LOOK AT IDENTITY FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES

    Leyla Shokoohe, City Beat, July 9, 2018

Related artist

  • Firelei Báez

    Firelei Báez

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