In honor of Miami Beach’s centennial anniversary, FIU College of Architecture + The Arts artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada will unveil a 5’ x 3’ digital painting of his art piece, “Just below the surface: 1915 (The Founding of Miami Beach),” archival ink on aluminum. Cortada was inspired by a 1915 microscopic diatom — a single-celled organism that lived in the water and harnessed the power of the sun to convert CO2 into oxygen — that FIU scientist Evelyn Gaiser was studying in her lab to help address sea level rise. Cortada’s artwork captures these diatom images of glass-encased algae that lived in Biscayne Bay 100 years ago. The artwork is a gift to the City of Miami Beach to mark the centennial celebrations. Click here to view the unveiling.
