Firelei Báez has always looked toward change. “Nothing should be constant,” she told Whitehot magazine in 2016. “Growing up as an urban nomad—willfully believing that change was going to happen and that it was going to be positive—in a way, it just gives hope. The only way to keep oneʼs agency is to have hope.” Báez overlays imagery—symbolic, mythic—on historical maps and documents, creating brave new worlds that still acknowledge old-world spirits. Her large-scale works are wondrously elemental, and then there are her miniature book-plate pieces. Positive energy abounds. —Elena Clavarino