In conjunction with the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference taking place on Miami Beach May 9-12, 2022 the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and City of Miami Beach will present a series of temporary site specific public art commissions, film screenings, and performances highlighting issues related to climate change and sea level rise. Fifteen (15) Miami-based artists will present work, including visual artists Franky Cruz, Cara Despain, Morel Doucet, Brookhart Jonquil, Michele Oka Doner and Lauren Shapiro. Performances and will include works by artists Dale Andree, Brigid Baker, Michelle Grant-Murray, and an audio-work by Gustavo Matamoros. The film program will include artists A.S.T. (Alliance of the Southern Triangle), Dale Andree, Domingo Castillo, Coralmorphologic, Hattie Mae Williams, and Lee Pivnik. In addition, The City of Miami Beach will also highlight works from their permanent public art collection with thematically related commissions by Bill Fontana and Ellen Harvey.

Aspen Ideas: Climate is presented by The Aspen Institute, a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. In collaboration with the City of Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County and a diverse group of partner institutions in and beyond South Florida, the Aspen Institute is enlisting global and local policymakers, scientific experts, corporate leaders, inventors and innovators, artists, young leaders, influencers, and engaged members of the public to participate in Aspen Ideas: Climate 2022.

Morel Doucet- Miami Beach Convention Center, 4th Floor
On View May 9-12
For Aspen Ideas: Climate, Miami-based artist Morel Doucet debuts a series of new ceramic figurative busts and sculptural installations that explore Miami’s ecological landscape and black culture, tracing the intersection of climate gentrification and fragility of the region’s marine life. The installation with series title Daughters of the Copper Sun honors the female matriarch of the family unit, acknowledging the multiplicity of roles that women take on in Latin and Caribbean cultures. Doucet draws inspiration from his ancestral homeland Haiti, the world's first black Republic. Exquisitely embellished with various indigenous flora and fauna found throughout the Caribbean, Doucet’s works make use of the French Rococo style of architecture and décor to highlight a powerful record of environmental decay that mirrors economic inequity, the commodification of industry, personal labor, and race.