On now until Sunday, March 16, 2025, the Vancouver Art Gallery hosts the first mid-career survey exhibition dedicated to the richly layered work of Firelei Báez, featuring two decades of paintings, drawings and sculptural installations.
One of the most exciting painters of her generation
Báez’s rich and potent body of work delves into the complicated and often incomplete historical narratives that surround the Atlantic Basin and re-examines these histories for the present day. Over the past twenty years, Báez has made work that explores the legacies of colonial rule in the Americas and the Caribbean, drawing from sci-fi, fantasy, anthropology, folklore and mythology to propose new narratives. The exhibition features over two dozen works – with some paintings over 20 feet in length – all of which are expansively vibrant and original, creating a sense of otherworldliness.
Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston and curated for the Vancouver Art Gallery by Eva Respini, this spectacular exhibit features the largest number of Báez’s paintings gathered in one place to date. It offers Canadian audiences the rare opportunity to revel in Báez’s powerful stories and sumptuous details and 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.
“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
This exhibition takes over an entire floor at the Vancouver Art Gallery, including two works installed in the rotunda, where they engage with the building’s colonial architecture and history. The exterior of the Gallery showcases a banner designed by the artist specifically for the facade, poignantly covering its imposing neo-classical architecture with a mythical female protagonist and engaging the city’s location at the edge of the ocean. Truth was the bridge (or an emancipatory healing) (2024) depicts a ciguapa – a mythological figure that is a recurring motif in Báez’s work – crouching over a map on the left panel, while a tidal wave on the right crashes towards the centre. The ciguapa is a woman-plant-animal hybrid who is known to be a trickster, reclaimed as a powerful femme figure by the artist. This monumental mural is a reminder that colonial histories can be reimagined for future generations.
(Photo credits: Installation view of Firelei Báez, A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways), 2019 exhibition at James Cohan, New York. Photo by Phoebe d’Heurle.)
About Firelei Báez
Born in the Dominican Republic and based in New York City, Firelei Báez is known for powerful, richly coloured paintings and immersive sculptural installations, offering visitors the sensation of stepping into her world. Delving into the historical narratives of the Atlantic Basin over the past 20 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 and mythology, fantasy, science fiction and social history to unsettle categories of race, gender and nationality, and propose new narratives. 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, bringing this quality into three dimensions.
(Photo credits: 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 by Phoebe d’Heurle. This image is also included on the Events page.)
Event details
Hosted by: Vancouver Art Gallery
Type of event: art exhibition
Featured artist: Firelei Báez
Date: Now until Sunday, March 16, 2025
Following its presentation at Vancouver Art Gallery, the exhibition moves on to the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines, Iowa, USA from Saturday, June 14 to Sunday, September 21, 2025.
Gallery hours:
- Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM PT
- Thursdays & Fridays: 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM PT
- Generally closed on Tuesdays, except for special holiday hours on Tuesday, December 24 and 31: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM PT
- Closed on Wednesday December 25 & January 1
Cost:
- General admission (non-BC residents): C$35.00
- General admission (BC residents): C$29.00
- Youth (age 13-18), Child (age 12 and under), Gallery Members & Caregivers: Free
- Groups of 10 or more: C$25.00 each
- Admission is free on the first Friday of every month from 4:00 to 8:00 PM PT during Free First Friday Nights presented by BMO. Tickets will be released one month in advance of the event. Reserve a spot in advance to guarantee entry into the Gallery.
Coupons and discounts cannot be claimed online. Please visit the Admissions Desk upon arrival to redeem and book your timed-entry tickets. Subject to availability.
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2H7
Booking link: Book your advance tickets here. You can also pay at the gallery on the day of your visit.
Contact Details: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2H7, Canada; (604) 662-4700 (press 0), customerservice@vanartgallery.bc.ca, vanartgallery.bc.ca
Accessibility: The Vancouver Art Gallery is wheelchair accessible. Street-level access is available through the Hornby and Robson Street entrances, open during all public hours. Wheelchairs are available to visitors on a first-come, first-served basis or can be reserved before your visit by calling 604-662-4700. A Service Animal may accompany visitors to all public areas of the Gallery. For select exhibitions, the Vancouver Art Gallery offers visual description to enhance your exhibition experience and to make the artworks on display more accessible. To book a Described Tour, please contact Stephanie Bokenfohr, Adult Programs Coordinator, by email at sbokenfohr@vanartgallery.bc.ca or by phone at 604-662-4700.
Refund policy: All ticket sales are final and non-refundable.