Fabiola Jean-Louis
Fabiola Jean-Louis | |
|---|---|
 Fabiola Jean-Louis | |
| Born | September 10, 1978 |
| Nationality | Haitian |
| Alma mater | High School of Fashion Industries, City-As-School, Nova Southeastern University |
| Known for | Photography, Sculpture, Haute Couture |
| Style | Intersectionality, Afrofuturism |
| Awards | National Endowment for the Arts |
| Website | http://www.fabiolajeanlouis.com |
Fabiola Jean-Louis (born September 10, 1978) is a Haitian artist working in photography, paper textile design, and sculpture.[1] Her work examines the intersectionality of the Black experience, particularly that of women, to address the absence and imbalance of historical representation of African American and Afro-Caribbean people.[2][3] Jean-Louis has earned residencies at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York City, the Lux Art Institute, San Diego, and the Andrew Freedman Home in The Bronx.[1][4][5] In 2021, Jean-Louis became the first Haitian woman artist to exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[6] Fabiola lives and works in New York City.[1]
Biography[edit]
Fabiola Jean-Louis was born in Port au Prince, Haiti in 1978 before relocating with her family to Harlem, New York around the age of 2.[3] Jean-Louis is an alumna of both Fashion Industries High-school and City-As-School.[3][5] She later attended Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with plans to study medicine before dropping out three months shy of graduation to pursue a career in art.[1][4][7] She is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.[8]
Career[edit]
Fabiola Jean-Louis is an artist who uses photography to recreate elaborate eighteenth century-inspired portraiture that centers Black women. As part of her process, Jean-Louis creates opulent dresses and other fashion accessories out of paper and then stages idealized eighteenth century scenes.[8] She says, "My work always centralizes around the black and brown female body, and it's looking at society--our place in society."[9] Art critic, Felicia Feaster, states, "Jean-Louis is in the business of both questioning the uniformity of our visual culture -- and its glorification of only the dominant European ruling class -- while also pondering a disturbing element of many classical paintings, which balance refined beauty against scenes of war, rape and destruction."[10]
Jean-Louis's rise to fame began in 2014 when she started experimenting with conceptional photography by blending science, technology, art, and design with the magical, mystical, and fantastical.[11] She used paper to recreate baroque gowns because, "As a black woman, I learned to do without, to make the best of having nothing sometimes. And fine fabric is expensive. You want to make these amazing, baroque gowns but you need to have the money for that."[11]
In 2021, the Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned Fabiola to make a life-size paper sculpture to be featured in their two year exhibition, Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. This made Jean-Louis the first Haitian woman to be exhibited in the museum.[6]
Works[edit]
ReWriting History[edit]
ReWriting History is a series by Jean-Louis that sheds light on the absence of Black people in historical portraiture with antithetical scenes of reappropriated history.[12] Consisting of photographs and sculpture, Jean-Louis makes paper dresses and accessories reminiscent of garments worn by old-world nobility then photographs her subjects wearing them.[12] The series is confounded by the mistreatment of Black bodies over centuries of enslavement, using references such as "The Whipped Back" of Gordon that features keloid scaring replicated on the dress seen in Jean-Louis' photograph, "Madame Beauvoir's Painting."[13] In April of 2021, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University announced the acquisition of the Rewriting History portfolio.[13]
Solo exhibitions[edit]
- 2019: Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY[5]
- 2019: Lux Art Institute, San Diego, CA[14]
- 2018: BRIC Gallery, Brooklyn, NY[15]
- 2017: DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL[16]
- 2017: Alan Avery Art Company, Atlanta, GA[17]
- 2016: The Harlem School of the Arts, Harlem, NY[18]
Group exhibitions[edit]
- 2022: Our Colonial Inheritance, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands[19]
- 2021: Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY[20]
- 2019: The Rest of History, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA[21]
- 2018: Dressed, The Window Gallery at The Paul Robeson Galleries, Newark, NJ[22]
- 2018: Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY[15]
- 2017: Visionary Aponte; Art and Black Freedom, Art of Black Miami, Little Haiti Cultural Center, Art Basel, Miami, FL[23]
- 2017: High John the Conqueror Ain’t Got Nothing on Me: American Hoodoo and Southern Black American-Centric Spiritual Ways, Rush Philanthropic, Rush Arts Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA[24]
- 2016: Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA[25]
- 2016: The Boundless Group Exhibition, Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY
- 2016: Metamorphosis Group Exhibition, Arts East New York Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
- 2015: Women as Witness, TI Art Studios, Brooklyn, NY[26]
- 2014: Sixth Annual Juried Student Exhibition, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale-Davie, FL[27]
Artist residency[edit]
- 2021: University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR[28]
- 2019: Lux Art Institute, San Diego, CA[29]
- 2017: Museum of Arts and Design, New York City, NY[4]
Selected collections[edit]
- Andrew Freedman Home, The Bronx, NY
- Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, TN[30]
- New York University, New York City, NY[31]
- Spelman College Museum, Atlanta, GA[32]
- Yale University, New Haven, CT[13]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Cassidy Zachary and April Calahan (February 16, 2021). "Refashioning History, an interview with artist Fabiola Jean-Louis". Dressed Podcast (Podcast). iHeart Radio.
- ^ Stewart, Jessica (9 April 2018). "Interview: Powerful Photos of Black Women in White European Nobility Gowns". My Modern Met.
- ^ a b c Danielle Krysa (February 19, 2021). "Fabiola Jean-Louis: Create Your Own Magic". The Jealous Curator (Podcast). Libsyn.
- ^ a b c "Artist Studios: Fabiola Jean-Louis". Museum of Arts and Design.
- ^ a b c Uptowner, The Curious (2019-03-27). "This artist reimagines the past, depicting black women in exquisite period costumes made of paper". thecuriousuptowner. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
- ^ a b "Contemporary Voices: Fabiola Jean-Louis". George Washington University Museum.
- ^ Morris, C. Zawadi (April 18, 2016). "Fabiola Jean-Louis on the Art of Time-Travel, Truth-Telling and Rewriting History". BK Reader.
- ^ a b Engel, Laura (Summer 2021). "The Archival Tourist Take Two: Looking at Legacies of Eighteenth-Century Portraiture through the Work of Elizabeth Colomba and Fabiola Jean-Louis". Eighteenth-Century Fiction. 33. doi:10.3138/ecf.33.4.557. S2CID 235717684 – via Project Muse.
- ^ "Fabiola Jean-Louis". The Fashion Studies Journal. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
- ^ Feaster, Felicia (December 1, 2017). "Artist Fabiola Jean-Louis offers pretty pictures of ugly history". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on 2021-10-06. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
- ^ a b Andrea Leonhardt (2018-01-22). "Haitian Artist Fabiola Jean-Louis Speaks About Rewriting History in New Bklyn Conversation Series". BK Reader. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
- ^ a b Hansell, Sally (December 6, 2017). "Race, History, and the Body Theatrical in Atlanta, Georgia". Art Critical.
- ^ a b c Kuhl, Nancy (April 28, 2021). "New Acquisition: Rewriting History by Fabiola Jean-Louis". BEINECKE RARE BOOK & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY.
- ^ Hewitt, Lonnie Burstein (2019-09-10). "Haunting Black Narrative opens Lucky Season 13 at Lux Art Institute". Encinitas Advocate. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ a b "Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas". Edouard Duval-Carrié. 2019-02-04. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ Davidson, Eliza (2018-03-30). "Fabiola Jean-Louis beautifully explores ugly truths via DuSable Museum exhibit". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "ALAN AVERY ART COMPANY: FABIOLA JEAN-LOUIS: RE-WRITING HISTORY". KIDS OPERA & ART POSSE. 2017-11-04. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "Rewriting History: Paper Gowns & Photographs, The Art of Fabiola Jean-Louis". Harlem School of the Arts. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "Colophon Our Colonial Inheritance". Tropenmuseum.
- ^ "Exhibition Overview, Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room". Metropolitan Museum.
- ^ "Exhibitions: THE REST OF HISTORY". Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
- ^ "Dressed – Paul Robeson Galleries". Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "Visionary Aponte: Art & Black Freedom – Little Haiti Cultural Complex". Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "'High John the Conqueror Ain't Got Nothing On Me' at Rush Arts Philadelphia". Artblog. 2017-03-26. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art". DAILY SERVING. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "Women as Witness". womenaswitness.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ Mortman, Megan (2014-04-24). "Work of art: Sixth Annual Juried Student Exhibition". The Current. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ Phillips, Hannah (November 10, 2021). "Fabiola Jean-Louis Comes to UCA as Artist-in-Residence". UCA Alumni Association.
- ^ Schimitschek, Martina. "Lux unveils 13th residency season with a focus on inclusivity". mcall.com. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
- ^ "Permanent Collection". Hunter Museum of American Art. January 14, 2023.
- ^ "NYU LMF: Permanent Acquisition of Fabiola Jean-Louis Artwork". Rising Violets NYU.
- ^ "Fabiola Jean-Louis | 'Amina,' 2016". Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
External links[edit]
- Fabiola Jean-Louis
- Fabiola Jean-Louis on Instagram