Firelei Báez transforms the gallery into a shifting map of memory and myth. This exhibition, her first major New York gallery show after a string of international museum triumphs, looks beyond fixed histories. By blending the botanical with the celestial, Báez reinterprets the legacy of the African diaspora through monumental canvases and intricate bronze sculptures that feel both ancient and futuristic.

You're watching a transition of light and temperature. On the ground floor, an eight-panel painting pulls you from tropical warmth into an Arctic chill through poured pigments that mimic the flow of nature. Nearby, bronze ciguapas—mythical Dominican tricksters—stand draped in feathers and braids, their heavy forms suggesting both the weight of the past and the fluid possibility of the future.

• Scale and Scope: The exhibition spans two entire floors of the Chelsea gallery, featuring everything from delicate works on paper to massive bronze castings.
• The Narrative Shift: Move beyond traditional history painting with works like 'View of Nature', which reimagines a 19th-century engraving as a living, breathing landscape of color.
• Mythical Presence: Encounter the larger-than-life ciguapas, hybrid bronze figures that bring Dominican folklore into a contemporary dialogue with power and beauty.

Start on the ground floor to feel the physical gravity of the bronzes and the immersive stretch of the multi-panel paintings. As you ascend to the second floor, allow the atmosphere to lighten; here, the works on paper become more ethereal and abstract. Once you leave the gallery, walk toward the High Line to see how the New York skyline mirrors the layering of history and nature you've just witnessed.