Colorful, powerful tricksters populate the magical visual worlds of Dominican-American artist Firelei Báez.
Inspired by Caribbean culture, its narratives and its crucial role in the global, political and economic ideas of modernity, the New York-based artist has found a unique, symbolic visual language for her monumental paintings and installations. In her works, beauty, joy and freedom emerge from the archives of often violent history. Using the recurring figure of Ciguapa, a trickster figure and psychic guardian from Hispaniolan folklore, she intervenes in historical maps and archive diagrams.
Firelei Báez, How to slip out of your body quietly, 2018, acrylic and oil on paper, 177.8 x 299.7 cm, Alyssa and Gregory Shannon Collection, Texas, © Firelei Báez, Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery, Photo: John Lusis
Firelei Báez playfully reverses the normative interpretation of the ciguapa as a stubborn, unruly part of nature into a more powerful, self-determined being that is capable of subverting historical, racialized and gender-specific power dynamics. Her painterly intervention in colonial history thwarts conventional Eurocentric readings and opens the eye to multi-linear perspectives. In this way, she encourages viewers to look at global culture and identity in a new, forward-looking way.
Since purchasing the installation shown at the 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art in 2018, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg has closely followed the work and development of Firelei Báez. We are therefore all the more delighted to be able to present the first comprehensive solo exhibition of this outstanding painter in Germany.
The exhibition is being organized in cooperation with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, and will be accompanied by a publication in English.
July 6 to October 13, 2024
www.kunstmuseum.de
Firelei Báez, 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, acrylic, ink and Chincollé on 58 detached book pages, 244 x 569 cm (dimensions variable), Kunstmusem Wolfsburg, © Firelei Báez, Courtesy the artist and James Cohan Gallery, Photo: Marek Kruszewski
