Firelei Baez

Firelei Báez (born 1981) is an Dominican-American artist, based in New York City. She is best known for large scale works, particularly on paper. Her first solo show, Firelei Báez: Bloodlines was exhibited at Miami's Perez Art Museum in 2015. Her work encompasses identity through various cultural and geographic lenses, as well as feminine craft as communication and resistance among women of the African Diaspora. A solo exhibition of her work is on display at the Andy Warhol Museum from February 17 - May 21, 2017.

Báez was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic to Dominican and Haitian parents. In 1990, at the age of 9, her family immigrated to the United States. The move, originally to Miami, Florida, made a major impact on her life and future work.

"There's a fluidity of color, of race, in the Caribbean," she says. "In America, you're black."

She earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Cooper Union's School of Art in New York City. Báez continued her education and received a Masters of Fine Arts from Hunter College in 2010.

In addition to her education, Báez has also held numerous residencies throughout the country. Some of these residencies include The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace and The Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace.

Her work details the history of social movement in the Caribbean and Americas.

Báez artwork is displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is known for artwork that explores identity in displaced societies.

In 2010, She received the prestigious Painters and Sculptors award from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

In 2015, She won the Catherine Doctorow Prize For Contemporary Painter for her solo exhibition, Patterns of Resistance.

In 2016, She earned the Chiaro award, as well as a $15,000 cash prize and full residency, from the Headlands Center for the Arts.

...
Wikipedia