Firelei Báez is a Dominican-American artist whose large-scale paintings, drawings, and textiles evoke the beauty and political implications of hairstyles, textiles, and tattoos for those whose cultural identities have remained traditionally absent from dominant culture.
Báez explores her own divine being signifying a wide range of imagery that attests to the artist’s own hybrid racial background. The artist developed a style in her large-scale works that challenges a traditional linear art history; these works were influenced by a wide range of images from different cultures, including techniques from Persian miniature painting, studies on the female body and subjectivities, and science fiction. She is interested in reimagining her own origins, creating labor-intensive works that explore specific issues of landscape, womanhood, and race.
This solo exhibition is organized by the Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University and curated by María Elena Ortiz, Associate Curator Pérez Art Museum Miami.
