Des Moines Art Center Exhibition Featuring Firelei Báez
**Firelei Báez at the Des Moines Art Center: A Journey Through Time, Space, and Identity**
The Des Moines Art Center in Iowa presents a captivating exhibition featuring over 30 works by acclaimed artist Firelei Báez. Spanning nearly two decades, the exhibition showcases the artist’s paintings, drawings, and multimedia installations, offering viewers a journey through time and space that evokes wonder, reflection, and enlightenment. On display until September 21, Firelei Báez’s work delves into the complex legacy of colonial histories and the African diaspora in the Caribbean and beyond.
Drawing from diverse disciplines such as anthropology, geography, and folklore, Báez challenges conventional notions of race, gender, and nationality. Her artwork is characterized by intricate patterns, decorations, and vibrant colors layered over archival imagery like colonial maps and architectural plans. This intertwining of past and present invites viewers to question themes of agency, freedom, prejudice, and state-sponsored violence.
Kelly Baum, the Art Center’s John and Mary Pappajohn Director and CEO, emphasizes the exhibition’s role in fostering public discussion and enhancing Iowa’s cultural landscape. “Such an exhibition reflects our intention to serve as a public forum for discussion and our strategic ambition of ‘bringing the world to Iowa, and Iowa to the world.'”
Installed across 2,000 square feet in galleries designed by renowned architects Eliel Saarinen, I. M. Pei, and Richard Meier, the exhibition begins with Báez’s early series, “Can I Pass? Introducing the Paper Bag to the Fan Test for the Month of July” (2011). This series of 31 self-portraits resembles a calendar and references the discriminatory paper bag color tests used in the 20th century.
Visitors will also experience “A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways)” (2019), an immersive, grotto-like installation using perforated fabric akin to blue tarps, symbolic of refuge and shelter post-disasters. The tarps cast light on surfaces adorned with Black diaspora symbols, accentuating cultural resilience.
Further into the exhibition, a series of portraits explores femme identity through figures embellished with tattoo-like patterns, Persian miniature painting influences, and intricate hair designs. The exhibition concludes with two powerful works: “(once we have torn shit down, we will inevitably see more and see differently and feel a new sense of wanting and being and becoming)” (2014), a monumental archway honoring Haiti’s Sans-Souci palace, and “A most curious manifestation (or a boat sailing the great rapids of time)” (2024), a notable new addition to the Art Center’s collection.
Throughout the exhibition, viewers embark on a profound artistic and historical journey, paralleling Firelei Báez’s own evolution as an artist. For more information, visit [desmoinesartcenter.org](https://bit.ly/3SMrj1K).