Barak adé Soleil
Barak adé Soleil is an award-winning contemporary artist, independent curator, and facilitator who has been working professionally since 1991. Barak’s creative practice speaks to the expanse of performativity and the labor of the body; utilizing techniques drawn from the African diaspora, queerness, disability culture, and postmodernism. Barak is the founder of D UNDERBELLY, an interdisciplinary network of artists of color, and recipient of the prestigious Katherine Dunham Choreography award given by New York’s AUDELCO for excellence in Black Theatre.
Recent acknowledgements for creative works include: 3Arts Foundation Award (2016); 3Arts Robert Rauschenberg Residency Fellowship (2017); and Art Matters Foundation Award (2017). Recent presentations include: “from here to there” for 2018 exhibition Chicago Disability Activism, Arts & Design, 1970’s to Today at Gallery 400; and “a series of movements” for both 2018 7a*11d International Festival of Performance Art (Toronto), and VAE’s Everyday Series at Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh, NC. At 205 Hudson Street Gallery, NYC, the newest work ‘markings” premiered as part of the 2019 group exhibition Refiguring The Future.
In Canada, among various endeavors, Barak has served as Artistic Director for Tangled Art + Disability, developed creative work at Montreal Arts Interculturels (MAI), and currently working as a Consultant in Artists’ Impact for The Deaf, Disability Mad Arts Alliance of Canada (DDMAAC), and co-curator of The TALK: 2019 for the upcoming Prismatic Arts Festival.
Barak is presently based in Chicago and continues to work globally, engaging with distinct communities across Turtle Island, Europe and Africa.