Firelei Báez
November 3, 2024–March 16, 2025

Firelei Báez, Untitled (Temple of Time), 2020, oil, acrylic and inkjet on canvas, Wilks Family Collection, Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York, Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle, © Firelei Báez
My works are propositions, meant to create alternate pasts and potential futures, questioning history and culture in order to provide a space for reassessing the present.
—Firelei Báez
Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, this exhibition is the first mid-career survey of the richly layered work of Firelei Báez.
One of the most exciting painters of her generation, Báez delves into the historical narratives of the Atlantic Basin. Over the past twenty years, she has made work that explores the multilayered explorations of the legacy of colonial histories and the African diaspora in the Caribbean and beyond. She draws on the disciplines of anthropology, geography, folklore, fantasy, science fiction and social history to unsettle categories of race, gender and nationality in her paintings, drawings and installations. Her exuberant paintings feature finely wrought, complex and layered uses of pattern, decoration and saturated colour, often overlaid on maps made during colonial rule in the Americas. Báez’s investment in the medium of painting and its capacity for storytelling and mythmaking informs all her work, including her sculptural installations, which bring this quality into three dimensions.
This exhibition offers audiences a timely opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of Báez’s complex and profoundly moving body of work, cementing her as one of the most important artists of the early 21st century.
Firelei Báez, Adjusting the Moon (The right to non-imperative clarities): Waxing, 2019–20, oil and acrylic on panel, Private Collection, Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York, Photo: Christopher Burke Studios, © Firelei Báez
Installation view of Firelei Báez, A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), 2019, in Firelei Báez: A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), exhibition at James Cohan, New York, 2019, The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Courtesy the Artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York, Photo: Phoebe d’Heurle. © Firelei Báez
Firelei Báez, Sans-Souci (This threshold between a dematerialized and a historicized body), 2015, acrylic and ink on linen, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Museum purchase with funds provided by Lesie and Greg Ferrero and Rose Ellen Meyerhoff Greene, Photo: Oriol Tarridas, © Firelei Báez
Publication

Firelei Báez
Published by DelMonico Books/Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2024
Hardcover, 200 pages
Edited with preface by Eva Respini
Foreword by Jill Medvedow
Contributors: Leticia Alvarado, Firelei Báez, Katherine Brinson, Jessica Bell Brown, Julie Crooks, Daniella Rose King, Eva Respini, Hallie Ringle and Katy Siegel
Related Events
- Lectures and Talks
Panel Conversation
Reimagining Histories: The Art of Firelei BáezSat Mar 15, 2025 | 2–4 PMCourtroom 302 - Special Events
Celebrating Black Futures | Film Screening: The Inheritance
Mon Feb 24, 2025 | 6:30 PMVIFF Centre – Vancity Theatre | 1181 Seymour Street - Special Events
Celebrating Black Futures | Film Screening: Mami Wata + Drexciya
Sun Feb 23, 2025 | 3:30 PMVIFF Centre – Vancity Theatre | 1181 Seymour Street - Lectures and Talks
Library Talk: Erica Cardwell and Nya Lewis
Fri Feb 21, 2025 | 5:30–7:30 PMArtspeak, 233 Carrall Street - Special Events
Celebrating Black Futures | Sound Bath: In Drexciya with Courtenay Mayes
Tue Feb 18, 2025 | 5–7 PM2nd Floor - Special Events
Celebrating Black Futures | Film Screening: The Inheritance
Sun Feb 16, 2025 | 3:30 PMVIFF Centre – Vancity Theatre | 1181 Seymour Street - Special Events
Celebrating Black Futures | Film Screening: Mami Wata + Drexciya
Mon Feb 10, 2025 | 6:30 PMVIFF Centre – Vancity Theatre | 1181 Seymour Street - Special Events
Celebrating Black Futures | Hi-Fi Listening Session with Hafiz Akinlusi
Thu Feb 6, 2025 | 6–8 PMRoom 4East - Special Events
Dine Out Vancouver at 1931 Gallery Bistro
Wed Jan 22–Sun Feb 9, 2025 | 10 AM–4 PM1931 Gallery Bistro - Lectures and Talks
Artist Talk: Firelei Báez In Conversation with Eva Respini
Sun Nov 3, 2024 | 3 PMUBC Robson Square | 800 Robson Street