Firelei Báez – How to slip out of your body quietly (2018)

Louisiana Poster, published in connection with Louisiana's exhibition with the Dominican-American artist Firelei Báez (b. 1981) – her first solo exhibition in Europe. Monumental paintings and installations full of poetry, pain and immense beauty confront the Western world's hegemonic language of power. Old maps, architectural drawings and book pages are the tangible and vital starting points for her paintings.

The power and energy that flows out of Firelei Báez's works is overwhelming. She paints strong, poetic images on old diagrams such as maps, book pages and architectural drawings, moving effortlessly back and forth between abstraction and figuration.

Báez thrives on contradictions and ambiguities. In her works, notions of beauty intertwine with the specter of violence; here personal perspectives and grand historical narratives are mixed, here Caribbean mythology and science fiction are merged. A red thread runs through the entire work, which is about the experiences and representation of the Black diaspora and a desire to challenge preconceived and oppressive ideas about identity and history.

The diagrams that Báez incorporates into his art derive primarily from a historical context of European and American dominance, achieved through colonization, enslavement, and the exploitation of natural resources. They become a defining framework for the artist and influence the content that is subsequently painted. This influence goes beyond the historical and political connotations of a given diagram and also includes its formal aesthetics.

Louisiana's commitment to American art only makes it all the more exciting to present Firelei Báez's first solo exhibition in Europe. The exhibition then travels to the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, which, together with Louisiana, is among the few European museums that have so far acquired the artist's works for the collection.