Join us for a special Community Art Tour of the exhibition Firelei Báez, co-hosted by the Vancouver Art Gallery, VLACC, and Curated Tastes.

This interactive tour will be co-led by Miret Rodríguez, representing the VLACC, and an in-house expert from the Gallery who brings extensive knowledge of the exhibition. Miret will guide the conversation to unpack Báez’s richly layered works, which delve into themes of colonial histories, the African diaspora, and cultural hybridity. This collaborative approach promises a dynamic exploration of Báez’s practice, offering insights into the artist’s storytelling through vibrant patterns, historical maps, and mythmaking.

This event provides a welcoming space to connect with the works of Firelei Báez and engage in meaningful dialogue about the intersections of art, identity, and history. Please note that this tour will address sensitive historical topics, including violence and trauma.

Please meet us in the Gallery Lobby at 3:15 pm, so you have time to store your belongings and get ready before the tour starts promptly.

Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Time: 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery (750 Hornby Street Vancouver, BC V6Z 2H7)

This is a FREE event, but registration is required.
Please use this link to save your spot: https://tickets.vanartgallery.bc.ca/events/b942780a-6a1f-d62b-0cfc-cd2a10fb3749

About Firelei Báez and the Exhibition

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.

About the Facilitator

Miret Rodriguez is the creative director of Curated Tastes and VLACC’s former VP. She holds an MBA in art and culture management from the Superior School of Commerce in Paris and a BA Major in Art History from UBC. Miret relies on art and the artists that make it to navigate through cultural dislocation and hybridity. Since 2020, Miret has been interviewing Latinx artists in Canada about their immigration stories and their ways of expressing their experiences through art. This led her to curate Volver (to return, to become) in 2022 at Cityscape Community Artspace in North Vancouver.

In Partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery and Curated Tastes