Creative Conversations/digital: leo and Shobun Baile

Wednesday, April 8 | 6PM 

The first in a series of free-to-watch online artist talks hosted by FotoFest, featuring the artists leo and Shobun Baile, two artists currently living and working in Houston, TX, who recently collaborated to produce the site-specific installation, If I don’t look you in the eye (2020), for the FotoFest Biennial 2020 central exhibition, African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other, curated by Mark Sealy.

About the guest

Shobun Baile (b. 1986) uses video, sound, and sculpture to explore spatial technologies and the social and economic systems through which they are realized. He is particularly interested in the role that language and stories play in constructing space. He received a dual BS in Russian Language and Literature, and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan, and an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art. He has participated in exhibitions and screenings at institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Kilroy Metal Ceiling, Brooklyn; La MaMa Galleria, New York; Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh; Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, Mexico City; and Brecht Forum, New York City. He has participated in residencies at SOMA, Mexico City; the School for Poetic Computation, New York; and Shandaken: Storm King, in the Hudson Valley. He is currently a fellow in the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. For FotoFest Biennial 2020, Baile is worked with artist and fellow Core resident leo to produce a site-specific commissioned artwork.

leo's (b. 1990) practice is focused on the intersection of philosophy, performance studies, and histories. Currently, leo is looking at traditional western European ceremonies, rituals, canonical media pieces, and the roles performed in them, researching the relationship between performance, aesthetics, and labor. leo studied business management and arts and design at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil; attended the School of Visual Arts Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, and graduated in 2018 with the title Meisterschüler*in from the Universität der Künste Berlin. leo’s performative practice and artistic works were presented in the Core Exhibition at the Glassell School of Arts – Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2019); "Mutterzunge" at Babylon, Berlin (2018); and "SuperLiv/fe" (2017, fffriedrich, Frankfurt am Main). In 2018, leo was awarded a fellowship in the Core Program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where leo is currently based. For FotoFest Biennial 2020, leo collaborated with artist Shobun Baile to present a newly commissioned, site-specific work.