Antarctic Ice Paintings

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astrid

Artist: Xavier Cortada
Title: astrid
Series: Ice Paintings: Antarctic Sea Ice series
Medium: Sea ice from the Antarctica’s Ross Sea, sediment from Antarctica’s Dry Valleys and mixed media on paper
Size: 12 inches x 9 inches
Year: 2007
Created onsite at McMurdo Station, Ross Island, Antarctica

At the permanent collection of the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham


Xavier Cortada, recipient of a 2006-2007 National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers fellowship, traveled to Antarctica to implement a series of projects and installations. While there, the Miami artist created “ice paintings” using sea ice and sediment samples provided to him by scientists working in Antarctica. The artist titled the works on paper by randomly selecting the names of geographic features from a map of the continent that inspired their creation.