Two people stood in a gallery looking at two large artworks displayed on a white wall by artist Firelei Báez.

At the table with Firelei Báez

joined by Dr. Adéọlá Dewis, Rachel Kent & Dr Francesca Sobande

11 Mar 2021
20:00 GMT
Online

Free

Click here to book now

Presented in partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University, Artes Mundi launches the first of our free At the table series with artist Firelei Báez.

 

The At the table series brings together the voices of the six Artes Mundi 9 shortlisted artists alongside those of international curators, artists, historians, thinkers and writers in a series of roundtable discussions. The talks will centre on themes and ideas present in their work and the interwoven relationship between histories and practices, locally to internationally.

 

The first of six events in the At the table presents artist Firelei Báez in conversation with Rachel Kent, Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia; Dr. Francesca Sobande, lecturer of Digital Media Studies at University of Cardiff; and visual artist, researcher and presenter Dr. Adéọlá Dewis. Imagining we are sat around a table sharing a meal and exchanging ideas, this event is a chance to hear different concerns and perspectives while getting to know the artist and their work.

Credit: Firelei Baez. Photo: Lia Clay

Credit: Adéọlá Dewis

Credit: Rachel Kent

Credit: Francesca Sobande

Born in the Dominican Republic, Firelei Báez lives and works in New York. She is represented by James Cohan, New York. Báez has had solo exhibitions in 2019 at the Mennello Museum of Art, Orlando; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; and the Modern Window at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Her major 2015 solo exhibition Bloodlines was organised by the Pérez Art Museum Miami and travelled to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. In 2017 she was shortlisted for Pinchuk Art Foundation’s Future Generation Art Prize, exhibited at the 57th Venice Biennale and in 2019 she was awarded the Soros Arts Fellowship.

 

Dr. Adéọlá Dewis is a visual artist, researcher and presenter based in Wales. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, her work explores expressions of identity and belonging in the diaspora. Dr. Dewis’ work is invested in the ways in which emancipatory performances such as Carnival, masquerades and rituals can inform approaches to art-making. She is currently the Founder and Director of Laku Neg: a burgeoning digital artist initiative for African diaspora artists, which promotes the exchange of African diaspora knowledge through memory, philosophy, performance and storytelling, as a key focus for a reparations agenda. She is also an hourly paid lecturer at the University of South Wales.

 

Rachel Kent is the Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Australia. An experienced arts leader and art historian, she speaks and publishes widely on modern and contemporary art, with a particular interest in environmental themes and human rights. Rachel is a juror for contemporary art awards in Asia and Europe; and sits on a range of academic, government and cultural advisory and editorial panels.

 

Dr. Francesca Sobande is a Lecturer in Digital Media Studies at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture (Cardiff University). She is Course Director of the BA Media, Journalism and Culture programme and is an affiliate of the Data Justice Lab. Her research particularly focuses on digital culture, Black diaspora, feminism, creative work, power, and popular culture. Dr. Sobande is the author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and is on the Artes Mundi board of trustees. She is also co-author with layla-roxanne hill of the forthcoming book Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland (Bloomsbury/Zed Books, 2022).

 

Presented with Cardiff Metropolitan University