Marissa Alise Baez : Materia Medica
September 26 – February 1, 2026
2025-09-26 09:00:00
2026-02-01 09:00:00
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Marissa Alise Baez : Materia Medica
https://www.steelstacks.org/event/17689/marissa-alise-baez--materia-medica/
Alvin H. Butz Gallery
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Venue: Alvin H. Butz Gallery
Located in the Alvin H Butz Gallery and ArtsQuest Center First Floor
Materia Medica explores the movement of people, practices and materials associated with labor. For this exhibition I have collected materials connected to Mexican workers involved with Bethlehem Steel. You see cyanotype prints of images, and documents from the library archives of Lehigh Valley University Penn State University Library Special Collection, and The National Museum of Industrial History. “Materia Medica” is a medicine book derived from Greek Physician, Pharmacologist, and Bontist Dioscorides. Illustrated in the book are drawings of natural materials and their uses. Metals are included within the book.
This exhibition starts with artwork that holds connections to the artist's ancestral lineage and addresses experiences faced by Latinx communities. Events taking place from 1600’s to contemporary movements.
Materials move around just as people do, the manganese brought up to Bethlehem Steel came from Latin America, Mexican migrant workers came by contracts. Many individuals migrated from Europe to the Americas, displacing native people. The displacement of peoples continues just as the displacement of materials. You will see evidence of hybrid identity, from references of the poem Coco-A to Marissa Baez family documents.
For people in the Latinx diaspora Spanish, Portuguese and French colonization created class and race inequalities. Materials such as Gold, Silver, copper, and iron sought out by colonial forces. Metals used for medical and spiritual connections by the indigenous people of MesoAmerica and the Caribbeans.
Assimilation is the contemporary force of assimilation affecting all marginalized bodies. Our labor, our lands, and our bodies are still being mistreated. The past and the present are interconnected. The first floor will have a healing performance intended for the marginalized bodies to heal. It will be open to everyone to participate but positive intentions must be on the participants mind.
Artist Bio
Marissa Alise Baez was born in 1997 in Houston, Texas. Based in the United States, Baez is a multidisciplinary artist interested in memory, ephemerality, identity, and the body. They studied Sculpture at Texas Woman’s University and graduated with a BFA in May 2019. Baez graduated with an MFA at Penn State School of Visual Arts in 2021. Baez has exhibited and attended residencies nationally and internationally including Mexico, Texas, Pennsylvania, Washington, Germany, New York, Massachusetts, and California.
Baez's work is influenced by suppressed Mexican American history, death, ancestry, and decolonization. Conversations with Latinx and Indigenous academics and artists led Baez to expand their perspective on navigating a state of in-between. They address intergenerational trauma and the resilience of marginalized bodies through a combination of photography, performance, sculpture, and material-based installations. Baez weaves in family experiences and looks to their grandmother's use of Curanderismo to explore healing and indigeneity.
marissabaez.netVenue Information
Alvin H. Butz GalleryArtsQuest Center
101 Founders Way
Bethlehem, PA 18015
610-332-1300
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