Marian Bailey & Dora Cuenca

COMMONWEAL is pleased to share that during November, we will be exhibiting fourteen new prints by Marian Bailey and Dora Cuenca developed specifically for this exhibition.  Bailey and Cuenca create work that celebrates belonging, whether in one’s own body, a community or a physical environment, as a radical act of courage and self-definition.

Bailey (b. 1991) is a self-taught visual artist located in Philadelphia, PA. Although her background is in acrylic portraiture, her current medium of choice is digital art with which she creates bold colorful illustrations. She primarily focuses on highlighting the beauty of blackness with a hyper focus on dark skin black women. Marian aims to offset the anti-blackness that permeates society and provide the representation that she so desperately wanted to see growing up.  Bailey’s work has been publicly installed at Afro Homestead in Allentown, PA, the People’s Fridge in West Philly, in a series of four banners adorning East Market, a 30’ mural at the Philadelphia International Airport, and was one of the contributing artists to the 2020 Women’s History project called “Sisterly Love”, produced in collaboration with Visit Philly, Live Nation, and Haha Magazine. Commercially, Bailey has collaborated with local ice cream purveyor Weckerly’s Ice Cream, Triple Bottom Brewing Company and the #solidblack campaign for Doritos.

Dora Cuenca (b. 1984) is a Costa Rican multidisciplinary artist guided by curiosity, a love for nature and the everyday motherhood experience. She works mainly as a muralist, digital fine artist and surface designer. In her art she blends the abstract and figurative to paint the way things feel rather than the way they look. Her process and final pieces cultivate, transform and transfer energy through color and shape. Currently based in New Jersey/Philadelphia, she has brought color to the city through the walls of Mission Taqueria, Freedom Apothecary, The Fashion District, Allen Street Grill, The Heid, Mural Arts and many private residencies through Philadelphia. She is passionate about encouraging others to pursue their own creative practices so they can experience first hand the gifts that creating something where there was nothing before can foster in ones life.