Seventeen
December 1, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
The Gallery At Cortada Studio
104 SW 9th Street
Ground Level
Miami, FL
www.cortada.com/map.htm

Miami Artists Unite To Raise Awareness Of
Local Endangered Species At
“Seventeen”
At The Gallery At Cortada Studio

Miami artist Xavier Cortada has invited 17 fellow Miami-based artists to create original works depicting one of the 17 threatened and endangered species that call Biscayne National Park home. The project, entitled “Seventeen”, will be exhibited at The Gallery at Cortada Studio Thursday, December 1, 2011 beginning at 6 p.m., and will feature works by: BMD, Anthony Burks, Diana Contreras, Eleazar Delgado, Clay Frye, Vince Herrera, Kazilla, Kid, Ernesto Kunde, Monique Lassooij, Sri Prabha, Sean Ritchwood, Courtney Rutter, Alexandra Seda, Yoko Sigiura, TMNK and Alex Yanes.

“Seventeen” follows Cortada’s 2010 project in which he created a mile-long installation consisting of 360 flags running from the entrance of Biscayne National Park to the water’s edge: 360 participants each painted a flag depicting an endangered animal representing each of Earth’s 360 degrees.

Featured artists’ pieces will be displayed at The Gallery at Cortada Studio alongside Cortada’s original drawings of the seventeen species — including the Wood Stork, the Key Largo Rat and the Smalltooth Sawfish. Cortada created the 17 drawings on carbon paper as a metaphor for the impact (or “carbon footprint”) that humans have had on these species, even across the boundaries of protected nature preserves.

The gallery will also display 180 drawings of Cortada’s “Endangered World.” Cortada has created “Endangered World” installations at the South Pole (2007), North Pole (2008), Holland (2009) and Biscayne National Park (2010), as well as online participatory art projects (www.endangeredworld.org), to engage community members in addressing the large-scale loss of our planet’s biodiversity.