BIOGRAPHY

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“I have an obsession with exposing what lies beneath the surface. It is my constant examination of the spirit, and no doubt - my intense curiosity with the cycle of life and death. Everyday, I think of peeling away layers, and imagine what I will find. I know that what I am looking for is not tangible, and with all my years of studying science, not even it can help me describe this thing. When I do finally get to a place of imaginative clarity, the visions are so intricate, and intertwined, that I find them too complex to communicate through my work. I am not yet skilled enough to show you all what I see, but I work to break that barrier each, and everyday.”


Conceptual Artist: Paper sculptor, photography, paper textiles, installation, and painting


Fabiola Jean-Louis was born in Port Au Prince, Haiti on September 10th, 1978 and moved to Brooklyn, NY at a young age. While attending the High School of Fashion Industries, her passion for the arts flourished. Fabiola discovered her talent for photography many years later in November 2013 while on a journey of artistic rediscovery. She began taking self-portraits as a matter of convenience, shyness, and because she knew how to convey the stories she wanted to tell using her body. Later, her work grew to include other subjects, and costumes, as well as sculptures made entirely out of paper. Today, her practice is focused on experimentation through the use of different techniques, disciplines, and even art styles.

While her images have been described as "magical, moody, and mysterious", Fabiola's body of work is also that of visual activism as she challenges the hegemony of society. Simultaneously, her goal is always to capture something that is not necessarily tangible in our world…Something that is beyond our humanity, and perhaps even pure.

Her love of Afro-futurism, science/ science fiction, pre and post industrial eras, elves, fairies, and history and folklore, are also central themes in her work. Her series, Rewriting History, a body of work consisting of period paper gowns, painterly photographs, and Polaroids, opened as a solo exhibition at Smithsonian affiliates, DuSable Museum of African American History, Alan Avery Art Company, and Andrew Freedman Home to critical acclaim. It also earned her acceptance into the highly sought after residency at the Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York City, and in September 2019, LUX Museum, San Diego. Fabiola was invited to join and participated in a BRIC Media group exhibition, Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their Diasporas. In 2021, The Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned a paper sculpture for a two year exhibition, “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room''. It debuted on November 5th, 2021 - making her the first Haitian, female artist to show in the prestigious institution. That same year, the Yale Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, acquired Jean-Louis’s entire Rewriting History print collection - along with three paper sculptures. 

Fabiola now sets her sights on entirely new projects beyond Rewriting History that include short films, pottery, large scale installations, and a new photographic series titled, “Atonement”. Her works have been featured in the New York Times, Architectural Digest, Vogue, Elle Decor, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Modern Luxury, Artnet News, Art Critical, Hyperallergic, Atlanta Art Constitution, Chicago Sun Times, The Fashion Journal, The Haitian Times, and more. Her paper dress sculpture, “Justice of Ezili”, is on view at the Metropolitan Museum until 2023.

ARTIST CV

RESIDENCIES

2019 LUX Art Institute, CA

2018-2021 Andrew Freedman Home, NY

2017           Museum of Arts and Design, NY

 

b. 1978 Port au Prince, Haiti

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY


EDUCATION 

2011 - 2015 Nova Southeastern University, Florida 

1993 - 1997 Fashion Industries High School 

1998 -1998 City-As High School 


PROFILE 2014 – current, Conceptual artist, Photographer, Sculptor, Guest Teacher, Lecturer


LECTURES, GUEST TEACHING, & PANEL 

2022 Dezeen, Panel

2022 The George Washington University Museum, guest lecturer 

2021 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room”, panel

2021 Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, “About Time: International Symposium”, Paris, guest lecturer 

2021 Munson-Williams Museum, guest lecturer 

2019 Andrew Freedman Home, New York 

2018 BRIC, panel 

2018 MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, Shomberg panel

2017 Black Speculative Arts Movement, New York, panel 

2017 Fashioning the Black Body In Bondage & Freedom, New York, panel 

2016 Spelman Museum – African Forecast Atlanta, panel 

2015 City-As High School New York, guest teacher 

2015 - 2016 Harlem School of the Arts New York, teaching artist 

2016 New York University New York, guest lecturer 

2016 Fashion Industries High School New York, guest lecturer 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 La Maison Francaise, New York University

2019 Rewriting History: A Black Ancestral Narrative, Andrew Freedman Home, NY

2019 Rewriting History, LUX Art Institute, CA

2017 Rewriting History: Paper Gowns & Photographs, IL

2017 Rewriting History, Alan Avery Art Company, GA

2016 Rewriting History, Harlem School of the Arts, NY



GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2022          Our Colonial Inheritance, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam

2021          Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, The Metropolitan Museum, NY

2019           Afro Syncretic, The Latinex Project NYU, NY

2019           The Rest of History - Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), VA

2019           Dust Specks on the Sea - Hunter College, NY

2018 The Rest of History, Virginia MOCA, group exhibition

2018          Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and their     Diasporas - BRIC gallery, NY

2017         High John the Conqueror Ain't Got Nothing On Me: American Hoodoo & Southern Black-American Centric Spiritual Ways, Rush Arts Gallery, PA - Rush Philanthropic

2017         Here + Now Abandoned Margins: Policing the Black Female Body, NY

2016        The 9th Coven: Witches Ball, Andrew Freedman Home, NY

2016         Africa Forecast: Fashioning Contemporary Life, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, GA

2016        The 2016 Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Southeastern Designer Show House, GA

2016        Boundless Group Exhibition, Brooklyn Historical Society, NY

2016        Metamorphosis Group Exhibition, Arts East NY Gallery, NY

2016        Rewriting History: paper dresses & photographs, Solo Exhibition, Harlem School of the Arts, NY

2015        Women as Witness Group Exhibition, TI Art Studios, NY  

2014    Sixth Annual Juried Student Group Exhibition, Nova Southeastern University, FL

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

2022 Brent Staples, In Search of the Black Utopia, The New York Times 

2022 Salamishah Tillet, Afrofuturist Room at the Met Redresses a Racial Trauma, The New York Times 

2018 Tanner West, See the Gorgeous Photos and Costumes of Fabiola Jean-Louis, Reimagining European History Through the Lens of Black Freedom, Artnet News 

2018 Eliza Davidson, Fabiola Jean-Louis beautifully explores ugly truths via DuSable museum exhibit, Chicago Sun Times  

2018 Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Critics Pick Bordering the Imaginary: Art From the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Their Diasporas, ArtForum 

2017 Felicia Feaster, Art Review: Fabiola Jean-Louis Offers Pretty Pictures of Ugly Truth, The Atlanta Journal Constitution 

2018 Jessica Stewart, Powerful Photos of Black Women In White Women Nobility, My Modern Met  

2018 Kim Jenkins, The Fashion Studies Journal & Bryan Mason

2016 Jeanine Hayes & Bryan Mason, Fabiola Jean-Louis & Clinton Hill, Moyi Magazine 

2016 Omo Misha, Fabiola Jean-Louis Rewrites History With a Magical Lens, Huffington Post 

2016 Omo Misha, Fabiola Rewrites History with a Magical Lens, Huffington Post 

2016 Pinkins, Tonya, The Black Gaze: Raseskillene I Amerikansk Teater, Norske 

Shakespeare og Teater Tidsskrift Magazine 

2016 Audrey’s Society Whirl, Two Sensational Shows: Ben Vereen and 

Fabiola Jean-Louis, NY Beacon Newspaper 

2016 BWW News Desk, Fabiola Jean-Louis Exhibition on View Through 

March 16th 2016 at Harlem School of the Arts, Broadway World 

2016 Luca, Demetria, Emerging Artist Fabiola Jean-Louis Rewrites History at the 

Harlem School of the Arts, See Some World 

2016 Super Selected Blog, Art. Fabiola Jean-Louis Rewrites History, Super Selected 

2014 Phillips, Rasheedah, Bringing Unseen Worlds to Light: Interview with Fine 

Artist Fabiola Jean-Louis, Atlantic Black Star Blerds 

2014 Jordan, Tip, Interview: Photographer, Fabiola Jean-Louis—Magic & the Machine, AfroPunk

2014 ArtInsomniac, Lucid Dreams: Fabiola Jean-Louis, ArtInsomniac photo essay