Xavier Cortada is Miami-Dade County’s first artist in residence. He is holding a yard sign from his project “The Underwater.”
By Carlos Frías, Leslie Ovalle Atkinson, Elisa Baena (Published September 7, 2023 at 2:09 PM EDT)
The kind of art that Xavier Cortada creates makes the abstract feel real — instead of the other way around.
He tackles big issues with his work. But how do you make visual art when you’re trying to say something about sea level rise or gentrification.
That’s one reason Xavier was named Miami-Dade County’s first artist in residence. He wants to take on the big issues that affect his home in South Florida with his art.
One project he calls the Underwater Homeowners Association. He paints beautiful numbered signs that South Florida art fans install in their yards. They show just how many feet their homes are above sea level. And what even a foot of rising water could mean.
In another, he asks inland residents to plant mangrove seedlings in their yard — a plant that usually grows at the water’s edge. The implication is “the water is coming.” Yeah, it starts some pretty interesting conversations.
Xavier wants to make society’s big problems tangible. To make the invisible … visible.
He’s been making art that speaks to South Florida and around the world for decades.
On the Sep. 7 episode of Sundial, we speak with him about the art he hopes can make a difference.
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