Xavier Cortada, Miami’s pioneer eco-artist, uses art’s elasticity to work across disciplines to engage communities in problem-solving. Particularly environmentally focused, his work aims to generate awareness and action around climate change, sea-level rise, and biodiversity loss. Over the past three decades, the Cuban-American artist has created art at both poles and across six continents, including more than 150 public artworks, installations, collaborative murals, and socially engaged projects. He has been commissioned to create art for the White House, the World Bank, CERN, the Frost Art Museum, and Miami City Hall, among many other venues in the arts, sciences, and government sectors.

Cortada, who serves as Miami-Dade County’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence, has received a 2023 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Excellence in Science Communication Award, a 2022 Creative Capital Award, and a 2021 Environmental Law Institute National Wetlands Award. Other accolades include being inducted into the State of Florida Artists Hall of Fame and delivering a TED Talk on the intersection of art and climate that has received over 1.3 million views. Cortada was born in Albany, New York, and grew up in and currently resides in Miami, Florida. He earned bachelor’s, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Miami, where he now serves as a professor of practice in the Department of Art and Art History, with secondary appointments at the medical and law schools. Cortada also serves as a Research Fellow for Princeton University Center for Migration and Development.