The first time I saw a Firelei Báez I felt as if I’d found a glowing orb at sea, or made friends with a London parakeet. It was rare and magnetic, an arrestingly beautiful rendering of foliage, waves and hair on an archival backdrop, in this instance schematics and yield tables from a colonial-era sugar refinery. That was in 2019. I haven’t stopped thinking about the painting since. So the fact that the Dominican Republic-born, New York-based artist is finally opening her first solo show in the UK is thrilling.
Titled Sueño de la Madrugada (A Midnight’s Dream) (although madrugada actually translates as dawn in English), the exhibition offers clouds of small paintings offset from the wall, murals that wrap rooms, painted aluminium cutouts and an immersive installation. It is curated by the 2024 fellows of the New Curators programme, a groundbreaking 12-month, salaried course for applicants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
