Fabiola Jean-Louis Explained

Birth Date:September 10, 1978
Birth Place:Port Au Prince, Haiti
Fabiola Jean-Louis
Nationality:Haitian
Known For:Photography, Sculpture, Haute Couture
Style:Intersectionality, Afrofuturism
Website:http://www.fabiolajeanlouis.com
Alma Mater:High School of Fashion Industries, City-As-School, Nova Southeastern University
Awards:National Endowment for the Arts

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.[4] In 2021, Jean-Louis became the first Haitian woman artist to exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[5] Fabiola lives and works in New York City.

Biography

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. Jean-Louis is an alumna of both Fashion Industries High-school and City-As-School. 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.[6] She is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.[7]

Career

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. She says, "My work always centralizes around the black and brown female body, and it's looking at society--our place in society."[8] 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."[9]

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.[10] 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."

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.

Works

ReWriting History

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.[11] 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. 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."[12] In April of 2021, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University announced the acquisition of the Rewriting History portfolio.

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Artist residency

Selected collections

References

  1. Refashioning History, an interview with artist Fabiola Jean-Louis. Dressed Podcast. iHeart Radio. Cassidy Zachary and April Calahan. February 16, 2021.
  2. Web site: Stewart. Jessica. Interview: Powerful Photos of Black Women in White European Nobility Gowns. My Modern Met. 9 April 2018.
  3. Fabiola Jean-Louis: Create Your Own Magic. The Jealous Curator. Libsyn. Danielle Krysa. February 19, 2021.
  4. Web site: Artist Studios: Fabiola Jean-Louis. Museum of Arts and Design.
  5. Web site: Contemporary Voices: Fabiola Jean-Louis . George Washington University Museum.
  6. Web site: Morris. C. Zawadi. April 18, 2016. Fabiola Jean-Louis on the Art of Time-Travel, Truth-Telling and Rewriting History. BK Reader.
  7. 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. 10.3138/ecf.33.4.557. 235717684. Project Muse.
  8. Web site: Fabiola Jean-Louis. 2021-10-06. The Fashion Studies Journal. en-US.
  9. News: Feaster. Felicia. December 1, 2017. Artist Fabiola Jean-Louis offers pretty pictures of ugly history. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. https://web.archive.org/web/20211006224827/http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/AtlantaJournalConstitution/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=AJC%2F2017%2F12%2F01&entity=Ar03901&sk=764B4C0C. October 6, 2021. 2021-10-06.
  10. Web site: Andrea Leonhardt. 2018-01-22. Haitian Artist Fabiola Jean-Louis Speaks About Rewriting History in New Bklyn Conversation Series. 2021-10-06. BK Reader. en-US.
  11. Web site: Hansell. Sally. December 6, 2017. Race, History, and the Body Theatrical in Atlanta, Georgia. Art Critical.
  12. Web site: Kuhl. Nancy. April 28, 2021. New Acquisition: Rewriting History by Fabiola Jean-Louis. BEINECKE RARE BOOK & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY.
  13. Web site: Uptowner. The Curious. 2019-03-27. This artist reimagines the past, depicting black women in exquisite period costumes made of paper. 2020-07-07. thecuriousuptowner. en.
  14. Web site: Hewitt. Lonnie Burstein. 2019-09-10. Haunting Black Narrative opens Lucky Season 13 at Lux Art Institute. 2020-06-30. Encinitas Advocate. en-US.
  15. Web site: 2019-02-04. Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas. 2020-06-30. Edouard Duval-Carrié. en-US.
  16. Web site: Davidson. Eliza. 2018-03-30. Fabiola Jean-Louis beautifully explores ugly truths via DuSable Museum exhibit. 2020-06-30. Chicago Sun-Times. en.
  17. Web site: 2017-11-04. ALAN AVERY ART COMPANY: FABIOLA JEAN-LOUIS: RE-WRITING HISTORY. 2020-06-30. KIDS OPERA & ART POSSE. en.
  18. Web site: Rewriting History: Paper Gowns & Photographs, The Art of Fabiola Jean-Louis. 2020-06-30. Harlem School of the Arts. en-US.
  19. Web site: Colophon Our Colonial Inheritance . Tropenmuseum.
  20. Web site: Exhibition Overview, Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. Metropolitan Museum.
  21. Web site: Exhibitions: THE REST OF HISTORY . Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.
  22. Web site: Dressed – Paul Robeson Galleries. 2020-06-30. en-US.
  23. Web site: Visionary Aponte: Art & Black Freedom – Little Haiti Cultural Complex. 2020-06-30. en-US.
  24. Web site: 2017-03-26. 'High John the Conqueror Ain't Got Nothing On Me' at Rush Arts Philadelphia. 2020-06-30. Artblog. en.
  25. Web site: Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art. 2020-06-30. DAILY SERVING. en-US.
  26. Web site: Women as Witness. 2020-06-30. womenaswitness.wordpress.com. en.
  27. Web site: Mortman. Megan. 2014-04-24. Work of art: Sixth Annual Juried Student Exhibition. 2020-06-30. The Current. en-US.
  28. Web site: Phillips . Hannah . November 10, 2021 . Fabiola Jean-Louis Comes to UCA as Artist-in-Residence . UCA Alumni Association.
  29. Web site: Schimitschek. Martina. Lux unveils 13th residency season with a focus on inclusivity. 2020-06-30. mcall.com.
  30. Web site: January 14, 2023 . Permanent Collection . Hunter Museum of American Art.
  31. Web site: NYU LMF: Permanent Acquisition of Fabiola Jean-Louis Artwork . Rising Violets NYU.
  32. Web site: 2016-06-24 . Fabiola Jean-Louis 'Amina,' 2016 . 2020-06-30 . Spelman College Museum of Fine Art . en-US.

External links

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fabiola Jean-Louis".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.