This body of art is a unique and special edition of 50 elements that comprise the series “Night Garden: In Moonlight the Stars Chatter” for season three of Commissioner.

The title is an extended soliloquy for the passing of time, using the garden as a site of leisure, congregation, and deep reflection. The articulate series offers moments of sorrow, birth, and redemption amongst our daily lives. Works in the series are embellished with flora and fauna reminiscent of the French Rococo era to create subtle surprise and the illusion of motion and drama in each piece.

The color blue provides the Collector with consideration of thought - a reminder that life is beautiful and magical in all its splendor of good, the bad, and the unknown. The color blue had the power to protect enslaved Africans and their descendants, known as the Gullah Geechee, from evil spirits. Similar to how Blue glass bottles were hung in trees to trap evil marauders.

Morel Doucet is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist and arts educator born in Haiti. Using a variety of mediums including ceramics, illustrations and prints, he examines the realities of climate-gentrification, migration, and displacement within Black diaspora communities. His work catalogs a powerful record of the Black experience through environmental decay at the intersection of economic inequity, the commodification of industry, personal labor and race.

Morel graduated from the New World School of the Arts with the Distinguished Dean’s Award for Ceramics. From there, he formalized his education at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), receiving his BFA in Ceramics with a minor in creative writing and concentration in illustration.

A prolific artist, Morel has exhibited extensively in prestigious national and international institutions, including the Havana Biennial; the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, Miami; National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts, Pittsburgh; American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona; Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami; Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, São Tomé et Príncipe; Haitian Heritage Museum, Miami; and Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami. He has also been featured and reviewed in numerous publications, such as Vogue Mexico, Oxford University Press, Hyperallergic and Hypebeast.

Morel’s current endeavor as the Curriculum and Tour Coordinator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami is motivated by his interest in immersing young audiences through personalized courses that instigate curiosity, sensory perception and visual literacy. He is the second commissioned artist of Commissioner Season Three.

About Commissioner

Commissioner is an art membership program that provides aspiring art collectors with the knowledge, connectivity and experiences to confidently build their personal art collections with works from some of the most gifted contemporary artists in our community.

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Our Sponsors

Commissioner is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Knight Arts Challenge, which funds the best ideas for bringing South Florida together through the arts. Commissioner is also supported by a Locust Projects WaveMaker research and development grant that helped make this project possible alongside support from Tito's Handmade Vodka and Capital One. The Miami Foundation and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator are fiscal sponsors of Commissioner. Our media partner is The New Tropic, Miami's leading daily email for curious locals.