Grimaldi Baez is a teacher and practitioner of art-thinking based in Philadelphia.
Grimaldi Baez was born in San Juan Puerto Rico in the year of the Pig under the sign of Aries. He lived here and there and just about everywhere til he settled in the USA to attend high school. Upon graduating he continued his studies in Boston and later Philadelphia where he currently resides.
Baez has occupied several roles at The Village. He has worked as a teaching artist on The Village’s Crime Prevention through Environmental Design program (CPTED), collaborating with students and parents at Hope Partnership for Education to design solar lighting interventions for a path that students use to walk to and from school; a teacher of utopian design at Youth Impact Studios; and as a wandering student of the neighborhood.
Grimaldi’s studio practice includes drawing, printmaking, and fabrication, and he’s a remarkable teaching artist who cultivates spaces of radical imagination and conviviality around the city. As community organizer for our recent Material Memory project (SPACES International AIR) Grimaldi fostered and led a collective of neighborhood artists — Stan Ward, Ant Carr, and Will Reid — in exploring themes of place and memory. The collective built a powerful group identity and energy, and decided to continue their work together. As SPACES Artist in Residence, Grimaldi will work with the collective to investigate and practice work, togetherness, and ingenuity through art-making.