On any given day, you can find Morel Doucet in his studio at the Bakehouse Art Complex in Wynwood. In fact, the artist spends so much time in his studio that he has a stationary exercise bike in the back of the room. Adorning the available wall space are framed pieces from fellow artists that Doucet admires, along with his own paintings and prints.

A multidisciplinary artist himself, Doucet says his first love is ceramics. Pieces in various stages of progress line one table, and placed in the adjacent rack are works awaiting shipment to their new homes. A bust of Nefertiti painted in black and embellished with delicate golden flowers stares out from the middle shelf.

The space itself is intimate, but it’s home. Doucet has been a Bakehouse resident for more than two and a half years. He recalls waiting patiently — and not so patiently — for a studio to become available

Over the past year, there has been a record number of environmental disasters throughout the United States. Millions of acres were burned in the California wildfires, thirty storms were named during hurricane season, devastating flooding rocked the Midwest, and over fifty days of 110-degree weather was recorded in Phoenix. Most of us recognize climate change, are united in believing that we need to care for the earth. Many of us are aware of the growing number of issues at hand and the cost of our negligence. Still, we are rarely confronted with these issues on a daily basis or reminded just by stepping outside that climate change is not only real, but a threat to us personally.

As a member of the Caribbean and African American diasporas, I think a lot about the place that I, and other members of these diasporas, occupy. I consider how we are impacted by and responding to ongoing global dynamics—unresolved histories, climate change, equity, education, joy. The artists I’ve selected here are largely from the Caribbean and the United States and share their responses to these dynamics through the narrative arc of their art practices.

El Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) siempre ha mostrado una interesante colección de arte en la que reitera su amor por el talento que se ha desplegado a lo largo y ancho de Latinoamérica. Después de todo, durante las últimas décadas, el rol de la comunidad de origen latino ha crecido de manera preponderante en los Estados Unidos, logrando que esta tenga una voz propia, misma que ha llegado hasta el Congreso. Al ser ya una parte del ADN de esta nación, este museo no ha dudado en crear por primera vez los Latinx Art Sessions, que se llevarán a cabo el 24 y 25 de enero de 2019.

Meet six Miami artists raising awareness and galvanizing action around climate change, one of the city’s most pressing issues.

Climate change is without question the single most important issue facing Miami residents today. Rising sea levels continue to threaten the health and sustainability of marine ecosystems, and concern that climate gentrification is pricing out long-time residents from high-ground neighborhoods is rapidly spreading. As a result, artists are taking matters into their own hands: through sculpture, performance art, digital installations and exhibitions, six local artists are striving to build awareness around Miami‘s impending climate crisis.

"Latinidad is certainly not a monolith," says Naiomy Guerrero, who organized Latinx Art Sessions with Maria Elena Ortiz and Natalia Zuluaga. "We can’t hide under the umbrella of Latinidad; we have to look at it straight in the eye and expose it and talk about all the nitty-gritty of it."

Morel Doucet. While this Haitian-born, Miami-raised artist has most recently shown work in ceramics, Morel Doucet’s upcoming project, “New Kin, Black Kin” incorporates the flora of neighborhoods like Liberty City, Allapattah, Little Haiti, and Overtown into charcoal drawings of black portraiture. Doucet has explained that using materials like leaves, bark, and coral – whether molded in clay or pressed and affixed to paper – grounds him in his ancestral roots and ethnic identity. “New Kin, Black Kin” is more specifically an exploration of how this identity connects the artist to the land that, through climate gentrification and racial violence, could eventually witness the erasure of black bodies. The portraits themselves are soft and embracing of their subjects, transforming the landscape from something dangerous and rejecting into a witness to beauty. He’ll be showing the work at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in the spring of 2019.

Morel Doucet ’13 is an exhibiting ceramics artist and curriculum and tour coordinator for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. He was recently one of the featured artists at Art Basel Miami, an annual, international art fair showcasing contemporary art from established and emerging artists.