About the Work
This artwork is created to bring aesthetic beauty to a space that is used all day long by the general public. This work engages viewers forcing them to question why coral? and what types of birds are these?
The work’s focus is endangered species and the demise of our coral reefs. The choice of using silhouette stencils for the birds and coral, leaving the bare concrete behind, mimics their disappearance from our ecosystem. The blue color used throughout is a reference to rising sea levels and the slow absence of the blue sky as Brickell continues to build high-rises in an already overpopulated area. This piece is designed to raise awareness about how our actions affect our environments, which in turn affects how we live. Taking public transportation is one of the beginning steps of leaving a smaller carbon footprint on the Earth. Through public engagement, this artwork echoes and celebrates the importance of The Underline in its preservation of natural spaces that aim to help protect our environment.
Support
This work has been made possible by the generous support of Bonnie Bernstein Dockter and Peter Dockter and a matching grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Jennifer Basile
b. 1973, Manhasset, NY
Jennifer A. Basile was born and raised in New York. She holds a B.F.A from University of Miami and an M.F.A from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She is a Full Professor of Printmaking, Painting, and Drawing at Miami-Dade College Kendall Campus. Jennifer has been a Floridian for over 20 years and has been making art solely focused on the landscape. Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Art and Design Freedom Tower, The Tucson Museum of Art, and the Bernice Steinbaum Collection. Her work is currently represented by LnS GALLERY in Miami Florida.
Jennifer has been a two-time recipient of the Miami Dade County Artist Access grant and has attended many artist residencies such as The Charles Deering estate, a year-long residency program in Miami Florida, Vermont Studio Center with partial assistance scholarship, The Jentel Foundation in Sheridan Wyoming, and a full fellowship to the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley California.
Jennifer had a solo exhibition in September 2018 at the Iridian Gallery in Richmond Virginia, a gallery that only shows the work of artists that identify as LGBTQ. In addition, she had solo exhibition in April 2019 at the LnS GALLERY in Miami Florida.
