Xavier Cortada

Artist

Xavier Cortada, Miami’s pioneer eco-artist, uses art’s elasticity to work across disciplines to engage communities in problem solving. Particularly environmentally focused, his work intends to generate awareness and action around climate change, sea level rise, and biodiversity loss. Over the past three decades, the Cuban-American artist has created art at the North and South poles and across 6 continents, including more than 150 public artworks, installations, collaborative murals and socially engaged projects. He has been commissioned to create art for CERN, the White House, the World Bank, the Florida Turnpike, Port Everglades, and Miami City Hall, among many other art, science, and government venues. Cortada, who serves as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for Miami-Dade County, received the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Excellence in Science Communicaiton Award (2023), the Environmental Law Institute’s 2021 National Wetlands Award and was included in the 2022 GRIST 50. Other accolades include: the Creative Capital Award (2022), the Home & Away Residency, Anderson Ranch, Aspen, Colorado (2022); New York Foundation for the Arts fiscally-sponsored artist (2008 and 2019); Rauschenberg Residency: Rising Waters Confab, Captiva, Florida (2015); and the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists & Writers Program, South Pole (2006-2007). The artist’s work is in the permanent collections of the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the NSU Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, the Whatcom Museum, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum and the MDC Museum of Art + Design, among others. Cortada, who was born in Albany, New York, grew up and lives in Miami, Florida. He received bachelors, masters and law degrees from the University of Miami, where he currently serves as professor of practice at the University of Miami Department of Art and Art History with secondary appointments in the School of Law and Miller School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. He is also a research fellow at Princeton University lo Center for Migration and Development. His studio and socially engaged art practice are based at Miami’s Pinecrest Gardens. Learn more about the artist at www.cortada.comi

Socially engaged art / creative climate solutions

A creative approach to community climate action When he learned of the threat that rising sea levels posed to his coastal hometown of Miami, Florida, eco-artist Xavier Cortada founded a movement around beautifully designed elevation markers highlighting the risk of flood damage. The collaborative art project quickly mobilized action -- and excited some controversy. Watch as Cortada offers a creative vision of community organizing inspired by art that engages, educates and empowers. See Xavier Cortada's TED TALK at https://www.ted.com/talks/xavier_cortada_a_creative_approach_to_community_climate_action

See TED TALK at https://www.ted.com/talks/xavier_cortada_a_creative_approach_to_community_climate_action