Statement:

As an environmental artist,  my work deals with the decline of the coral reef ecosystems. I make drawings, sculptures and installations that investigates and highlights the main causes of the state that coral reefs are found today. The phenomena known as coral bleaching, ocean acidification and plastic pollution are the main starting points in discussing the human effects in ocean conservancy. I invite the public to discover a complex biological network, where the concept of ecosystem is materialized through organization, symmetry and repetition.My recent and interactive pieces (like, how to dry kill, to kill with water and to replenish with water) deals with the ephemeral state of the work and its forever changing quality, much like the ocean itself. It creates kinship with the creatures of the reef, a direct bodily experience to raise awareness and responsibility of this most powerful and endangered ecosystem.Like the reef itself, my work uses a number of underlying structures – interdependence, diversity and scale – to organize collective empathy. My main interest is to study these phenomena to create dry dives, a way of showing a vailed ecosystem internal to our planet that most people don’t have access to. I am especially interested in endangered species and how to translate scientific based studies into visual arts. My most recent activity on promoting behavior change focuses on interactive installations that encourages participants to become aware and reflect on the reality that how we walk on the earth impacts reef ecosystems. My aim is that once people are back in the natural world, they’ll be more cognizant of how their behavior might be harmful to the environment and inspire action to care for the oceans and coral reefs, and consequentially, the whole planet

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Bio:

Beatriz Chachamovits is an environmental artist and educator from São Paulo, Brazil living and working in Miami, Florida. 

Her work renders tangible the decline of the coral reef ecosystems, and the role played by humans in it. Her intention is to share the majestic beauty of at-risk marine ecologies as well as the appalling rate of their destruction. She works with monochromatic ceramic sculptures and drawings to highlight the unique shape, form and texture that exists in the underwater world. She is the author and illustrator of the book The little handbook of marine fishes and other aquatic marvels (Pequeno manual de peixe marinhos e outras maravilhas aquáticas), published by Companhia das Letrinhas in São Paulo, Brazil in 2018.

Selected solo show includes: “White Sea” at Galeria Tato in São Paulo, Brazil (2017) Into the Great Dying: Waters We Share" at Faena Art Project Room(2022) "Our Changing Seas" at the Frost Science Museum (2022).

Selected group shows include: National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, “Coral Expedition: 1865 - 2018” (2018) The Phillip and Patricia Frost Science Museum “Transitional Nature”(2020)Art and Cultural Center of Hollywood “C[h]oral Stories and Collective Actions” (2022)

Chachamovits’ work has recently been featured in Vogue Magazine’s Earth and Us section and in the National Geographic Education platform, part of an AAAS grant to teach fifth graders about women in marine science. She has received a prize from The Village of Pinecrest grant for artists, and is currently a resident artist at The Bakehouse Art Complex in Wynwood, Miami.

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Links to articles:

LEWIS PUGH FOUNDATION - CORAL CHAMPIONS 

VOGUE - EARTH TO US BY SALOMÉ GÓMEZ-UPEGUI

IMPACT EDITION - INTO THE GREAT DYING: WATERS WE SHARE BY YULIA STROKOVA

ARTE AL DIA -  INTO THE GREAT DYING: STEPS WE TAKE BY AMALIA CAPUTO

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - SIENCE BELOW WATER BY DR JENNIFER ADLER

VOYAGEMIA - LIFE AND WORK INTERVIEW 

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