Fabiola Jean-Louis is a visual activest working in photography, paper textile design, and sculpture. Her work examines the intersectionality of the Black experience, particularly that of women, to address the absence and imbalance of historical representation of African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans. She began taking self-portraits as a matter of convenience, shyness, and because she wanted to use her own body to convey the stories she wanted to tell. 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 using different techniques and disciplines. Jean-Louis spent her residency in March and April, 2022 at the Gardner exploring the collection, doing research, and working on a new sculpture in the artist apartment.
As a teenager, Jean-Louis studied fashion design & illustration before discovering photography in 2013. She is able to capture the intangible aspects of our world. Her interest in Afro-futurism, science and science fiction, pre and post industrial eras, history and folklore, are central themes in her work. The Gardner offered Jean-Louis a rich wonderland of layered environments to explore and be inspired by. She spent time wandering these spaces alone and in the company of museum’s curators, conservators, looking closely at the paintings, decorative objects and textiles. At night she went on a flashlight tour which offered her a different perspective of Isabella Gardner’s installations.
When Jean-Louis visited the Conservation Labs several projects were in the works including the treatment of paintings, objects, and works on paper from the Short Gallery as well as stone lion sculpture from the ground floor. She saw wall fabrics that had originally been installed on the Dutch Room walls. These faded swatches now living in textile storage will help the curatorial team recreate Gardner’s original vision as part of the room’s restoration project. She also examined pages from an exquisite prayer book that was being prepared for a special exhibition. This impeccably painted and gilded book of hours by Jean Bourdichon was purchased in Venice by Gardner in 1890 is the crown jewel of her manuscript collection.
In recent years Jean-Louis’ body of work has expanded to include large scale environments. Her time in the Archives was spent looking through the old dealer photographs of sculptures and architectural elements, which eventually became part of the museum. She browsed through volumes of Isabella Gardner’s travel albums including a diary and scrapbook chronicling a trip to Egypt, the Holy Land, and Europe in 1874-5, as well as an 1888 album of travels through Spain, Portugal, Italy, France and Great Britain. Gardner took great care in designing the pages of her albums, and within them we can find traces of her earliest inspirations for themuseum.
Another highlight of Jean-Louis residency time was a visit to the off-site greenhouse. In the spring the gardeners are getting ready to install the annual Courtyard Nasturtium display. The greenhouses were bursting with trailing vines of orange-red flowers, bright purple cineraria, and flowering citrus trees. Jean-Louis returned for a week in mid-April and had the opportunity to watch them being installed.
Fabiola Jean-Louis was born in Port Au Prince, Haiti and moved to Brooklyn, NY when she was young. Her work has been exhibited at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY; Lux Art Institute, San Diego, CA; DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, IL; and the University of Central Arkansas where she was also an Artist-in-Residence. 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, 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 her entire Rewriting History print collection. Jean-Louis’s series, Atonement, has been featured in several publications including 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, and The Haitian Times.
Fabiola Jean-Louis at the Gardner Museum’s off-site greenhouse, 2022.
