FÁBRICA presents Remedio para vencer (Remedy to Overcome), the first exhibition in Mexico by Havana-born, self-taught artist Gabriela Pez.

Pez’s practice began with close observation of plants and flowers, later evolving into portraits where Black figures appear among flowering fields and dense forests. Her materials are as meaningful as her vision: when supplies ran scarce, she began making her own paper from the cotton pods of the sacred ceiba tree. Revered in Afro-Cuban, Mayan, and many other traditions across the Caribbean and Latin America, the ceiba embodies both physical defense and spiritual protection. This material revelation opened a new dimension in her work, connecting her to ancestral knowledge, the protective powers of plants, and the mythologies preserved in Lydia Cabrera’s El Monte.

In Remedio para vencer, Pezz draws directly from Cabrera’s glossary of plants and their healing and spiritual uses, weaving poetic fragments into painted scenes where nature becomes remedy and resistance. Her work speaks to Afro-Cuban cultural memory, while also challenging the absence of Black representation in Cuban art beyond the stereotypes of slavery and struggle. The result is a visual language that is at once grounded and fantastical — a world where survival and imagination intertwine.

The work of Gabriela Pez (Havana, 1994) manifests itself as a poetic fusion of drawing and watercolor, where the mystical and the natural intertwine in the construction of a personal imaginary rich in symbolism. Her output encompasses themes such as identity, memory, gender, ritual, and spirituality. As a woman, of African descent, and a self-taught artist, Pez seeks to connect with the heritage of her ancestors. Therefore, she develops her creative universe based on her personal experience and (self-)representation, reviving her history and legacy in each work and creating a narrative fabric that celebrates Black beauty beyond established canons.