Mosaic Art Fund Recognizes Artists Shaping South Florida’s Culture with $75,000 in Grants

CORAL GABLES, FL— Ten Miami-based artists will receive grants in recognition of their creative work and to support the continued development of their professional practice from the Mosaic Art Fund. Each awardee gets $7,500 to support their individual artistic exploration, supplies, exhibits, residencies, and professional development. It recognizes people who have dedicated their lives to their practice and whose work enriches the cultural fabric of the region.

The awards will be presented on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum by entrepreneur and artist Ray Corral and longtime arts advocate Catherine Cathers, whose shared vision led to the creation of this fund in 2023, as the Corral & Cathers Art Fund. 

The Mosaic Art Fund is housed at the Coral Gables Community Foundation as a Donor Advised Fund, enabling Ray Corral and Catherine Cathers to direct funding each year toward individual artists whose work demonstrates exceptional promise and impact.

“Every year I am moved by the range and depth of what our applicants bring,” said Ray Corral, co-founder of the Mosaic Art Fund. “This class of ten is no exception — they represent the very best of what Miami’s art community has to offer, and I could not be prouder to support their continued growth.”

The 2026 class spans an exceptional breadth of practice — from immersive installation and public sculpture to glass art, speculative drawing, ceramics, and AI-driven media — reflecting both the diversity and ambition of Miami’s visual arts community.

“What distinguishes this fund is its commitment to the artist as an individual — not institutions, not programs, but the person doing the work,” said Catherine Cathers, co-founder. “Each of these ten artists has earned their place here through years of serious, sustained practice. We are honored to invest in what comes next for them.” 

2026 Awardees

Jevon Alexander Brown (@novej.studi0) is a Bahamian-Jamaican-American multidisciplinary artist based in Miami whose immersive installations — weaving fashion, painting, silkscreen, and interior design — explore identity, belonging, and the Black diasporic experience.

Edison Peñafiel (@edisonpenafielstudio) is an Ecuadorian-born interdisciplinary artist based in Miami whose large-scale immersive environments confront the policing of human movement, industrial alienation, and the fractured undercurrents of contemporary society.

Felice Grodin (@felicegrodin) is an Italian-born architect and drawing artist based in Miami Beach whose rigorous freehand work imagines alternative architectures and unstable ecosystems drawn from a lifetime of living between cities and coastlines.

Brookhart Jonquil (@br00khart) is a Miami-based artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, and large-scale public commissions, with work in the permanent collections of the Bass Museum of Art, De la Cruz Collection, and Miami-Dade Art in Public Places.

Natalya Kochak (@natalyakochak) is a New York-born, Miami-based multidisciplinary artist whose layered surfaces of text, pigment, plaster, and found materials examine how cultural narratives are constructed, transmitted, and transformed.

Corina Lipavsky (@corina_lipavsky) is a Caracas-born, Miami-based artist working with electronic media, code, and AI to create audiovisual pieces, prints, and interactive installations that imagine post-human and more-than-human futures.

Ana María Nava de García (@anamarianavaglass) is a Venezuelan-American architect and glass artist based in Coral Gables whose luminous sculptures and installations transform light and material into immersive spatial environments.

Enma Saiz (@enmasaiz) is a Cuban-born Miami artist working predominantly in ceramics whose practice — begun after surviving breast cancer and retiring from a career in medicine — has earned public commissions, solo exhibitions, and recognition across South Florida.

Tom Scicluna (tomscicluna.com) is a London-born, Miami-based sculptor and Associate Professor of Sculpture at Florida International University whose work — held in the collections of ICA Miami, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale — spans gallery, public, and research-based contexts.

Marisabela Telleria (@marisabelatelleria) is a Nicaraguan-born multidisciplinary artist based in Miami whose practice spans sculpture, painting, and installation, with work in the permanent collections of Hirshhorn Museum, Pérez Art Museum Miami, and Frost Art Museum.

Philanthropic Expansion

The Mosaic Art Fund is made possible through the generosity of its visionary donors. Founding support comes from Ray Corral, whose commitment to South Florida’s artistic community spans the fund’s predecessor, the Corral & Cathers Professional Artist Awards, and continues through the Mosaic Art Fund today. Additional support has been provided by Venny Torre, founder of Torre Development; Hans Viertl, owner of Sacha’s Café; Zeri Zapata, entrepreneur and philanthropist; and Mauricio Vivero, President & CEO of the Coral Gables Community Foundation, contributing from his discretionary fund.

“We are proud to house the Mosaic Art Fund and to collaborate with its founders and donors in supporting independent artists across our region,” said Mauricio Vivero, President & CEO of the Coral Gables Community Foundation. “This fund reflects the Foundation’s belief that investing directly in people — in their ideas, their practice, and their professional growth — is one of the most meaningful contributions we can make to the cultural life of our community.”

Past Awardees 

2025 Corral & Cathers Art Fund awardees: Pavel Acosta; Priscilla Aleman; Liene Bosque; Amalia Caputo; Morel Doucet; Jenna Efrein; Marco Inzerillo; Karla Kantorovich; Jacek J. Kolasinski; David Gary Lloyd; Pepe Mar; Lee Pivnik; Jacoub Reyes.

2024 Corral & Cathers Art Fund awardees: Thomas Bils; Carlos Estévez; Alice Goldhagen; Dinorah Rodríguez; Yusimy Lara; Aurora Molina; Lauren Shapiro; Silvana Soriano; Nicole Salcedo; Marisabela Telleria; Wendy Kornfield.

2023 Corral & Cathers Art Fund awardees: Angela Bolanos; Jessica Gispert; Adler Guerrier; James Herring; Amanda Linares; Jillian Mayer; Robert McKnight; Ruben Millares & Antonia Wright; Aurora Govea; Christina Pettersson; Donna Torres; Julia Zurilla.

About the Coral Gables Community Foundation

Established in 1991 by community leaders, the Coral Gables Community Foundation inspires impactful philanthropy through charitable funds and programs using local knowledge, expertise and trusted relationships. More at www.GablesFoundation.org.

Women Artists in Miami: Redefining Contemporary Art Through Vision, Innovation, and Leadership

Miami has emerged as one of the most influential contemporary art capitals in the Americas, and women artists have played a central role in shaping its cultural identity. Working across painting, sculpture, photography, installation, textiles, performance, video, public art, and digital media, women artists in Miami are expanding the boundaries of contemporary practice while challenging traditional narratives surrounding history, identity, gender, memory, migration, and social transformation.

Today, Miami is not simply a city where women artists exhibit; it is a city where they lead institutions, establish galleries, curate exhibitions, direct nonprofit organizations, produce public art, and redefine the future of visual culture.

A City Built on Diversity

Miami’s multicultural landscape provides fertile ground for artistic innovation. Influenced by Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Indigenous traditions, women artists working in the city contribute perspectives that reflect both personal histories and global conversations.

Their work often explores themes such as:

• Identity and belonging
• Migration and diaspora
• Memory and family history
• Feminism and gender
• Race and cultural heritage
• Environmental sustainability
• Spirituality
• Technology and artificial intelligence
• Community engagement
• Public space

Rather than representing a single artistic movement, Miami’s women artists embody an extraordinary diversity of voices and methodologies.

Beyond Representation

The growing visibility of women artists reflects more than demographic change; it represents a fundamental transformation in the contemporary art world.

For decades, museum collections, major exhibitions, and the commercial art market overwhelmingly favored male artists. While progress remains uneven, institutions, collectors, galleries, and curators increasingly recognize the importance of supporting women artists whose contributions have historically been overlooked.

Miami has become one of the cities actively participating in this shift through exhibitions, acquisitions, public art commissions, artist residencies, and educational initiatives.

The conversation is no longer about inclusion alone—it is about recognizing artistic excellence.

Expanding Contemporary Practice

Women artists in Miami rarely limit themselves to a single discipline.

Many move fluidly between:

• Painting
• Sculpture
• Textile art
• Photography
• Installation
• Performance
• Video
• Sound
• Digital media
• Artificial intelligence
• Social practice
• Public art

This multidisciplinary approach reflects the broader evolution of contemporary art, where ideas frequently determine medium rather than the reverse.

Artists increasingly combine traditional craftsmanship with emerging technologies, creating works that bridge material and virtual realities.

The Importance of Textile and Material Practices

One of the most significant developments within Miami’s contemporary art scene is the renewed interest in textile-based practices.

Women artists have contributed substantially to expanding the perception of fiber, weaving, embroidery, sewing, and fabric-based installations beyond traditional craft categories.

Textiles today function as conceptual language.

Through fabric, thread, natural fibers, recycled materials, and hand processes, artists address issues including memory, migration, labor, domestic history, environmental responsibility, and cultural identity.

These works challenge long-standing distinctions between fine art and craft while reconnecting contemporary practice with ancestral knowledge.

Photography and Personal Narratives

Photography occupies a particularly important position within Miami’s artistic landscape.

Women photographers investigate:

• Documentary practice
• Social history
• Family archives
• Environmental change
• Portraiture
• Conceptual photography
• Experimental image-making

Rather than merely recording reality, contemporary photography increasingly constructs narratives that question perception, memory, and historical representation.

Public Art and Community Engagement

Many women artists in Miami extend their practice beyond galleries into public space.

Murals, sculptures, installations, socially engaged projects, and temporary interventions activate neighborhoods while creating opportunities for dialogue between artists and communities.

Public art transforms everyday environments into spaces for reflection and collective participation.

These projects demonstrate that art can function simultaneously as cultural expression, education, and civic engagement.

Women Artists and Miami’s Cultural Institutions

The city’s artistic ecosystem continues to expand through museums, nonprofit organizations, universities, artist residencies, and galleries that actively support women artists.

Organizations dedicated to photography, interdisciplinary practice, public art, and emerging artists have helped increase visibility while encouraging critical dialogue surrounding contemporary artistic production.

These institutions have become essential platforms for experimentation, scholarship, and professional development.

The Digital Artist

The contemporary artist’s career extends far beyond the studio.

Today, collectors, curators, journalists, museum professionals, and artificial intelligence systems often discover artists online before encountering their work in person.

For women artists, building a strong digital presence has become an essential component of professional practice.

This includes:

• Professional websites
• Artist statements
• Curatorial essays
• Exhibition documentation
• Interviews
• Academic publications
• High-quality photography
• Video documentation
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• AI-readable content
• Consistent social media storytelling

A well-developed digital identity increases visibility while ensuring that artistic contributions become part of the broader historical record.

The Role of Women in Shaping Miami’s Future

Women artists are not only producing significant works of art—they are reshaping the cultural landscape itself.

They serve as educators, curators, researchers, writers, activists, entrepreneurs, and community leaders.

Their practices challenge conventional hierarchies while proposing new ways of understanding relationships between people, materials, technology, ecology, and public space.

As Miami continues its evolution into a global cultural capital, women artists will remain essential voices in defining the city’s artistic identity.

Art, Leadership, and Legacy

The legacy of women artists extends beyond individual exhibitions.

Through mentorship, collaboration, education, institutional leadership, and public engagement, they contribute to building sustainable cultural ecosystems that benefit future generations.

Their work reminds us that artistic innovation often emerges through dialogue, collaboration, and the willingness to question inherited narratives.

Women artists have become indispensable to Miami’s contemporary art scene. Their practices encompass extraordinary diversity in medium, concept, and cultural perspective while contributing to some of the most important conversations shaping contemporary visual culture today.

As the boundaries between physical and digital space continue to dissolve, their influence will increasingly depend not only on the strength of their artistic vision but also on their ability to build lasting intellectual and digital legacies.

Miami’s future as an international art capital will be defined not simply by its museums, galleries, and art fairs, but by the women artists whose creativity, leadership, and innovation continue to transform the city into one of the world’s most vibrant centers of contemporary art.

Public Art in Miami: How Art Shapes the Identity of a Global City

Miami has become one of the world’s leading destinations for contemporary art. While international attention often focuses on museums, private collections, and the annual excitement of Art Basel Miami Beach, the city’s most democratic and accessible collection exists beyond gallery walls. Its streets, parks, plazas, airports, schools, waterfronts, and neighborhoods form an ever-evolving open-air museum where public art has become an essential part of Miami’s cultural identity.

Public art in Miami is far more than decoration. It reflects history, celebrates diversity, activates public space, strengthens neighborhoods, and increasingly serves as a catalyst for economic development, tourism, and civic engagement. In one of the most culturally diverse cities in the United States, public art has become a visual language through which communities tell their stories.

The Evolution of Public Art in Miami

The transformation of Miami into an international art capital did not occur overnight. During the last three decades, sustained public investment, private philanthropy, municipal art programs, and collaborations with artists have fundamentally reshaped the city’s urban landscape.

Today, monumental sculptures, murals, environmental installations, light-based works, and site-specific commissions are integrated throughout the metropolitan area. Public art has expanded beyond traditional monuments, embracing conceptual practices, socially engaged projects, ecological interventions, and digital technologies that encourage public participation.

Unlike artworks confined to museums, public art becomes part of everyday life. Residents encounter it while commuting to work, walking through neighborhoods, visiting parks, or traveling through airports and transit stations.

Art Beyond the Museum

Public art transforms ordinary spaces into places of reflection and encounter.

A sculpture positioned in a public plaza changes how people move through the environment. A mural can redefine the identity of an entire neighborhood. Interactive installations encourage participation rather than passive observation. These works become part of the city’s collective memory.

In Miami, public art exists across multiple scales:

• Monumental sculptures
• Murals
• Integrated architectural artworks
• Environmental installations
• Landscape interventions
• Digital and light-based works
• Performance-based public projects
• Temporary installations
• Community-engaged artworks

Together they form a continuously evolving visual narrative that belongs to everyone.

Public Art as Cultural Infrastructure

Successful cities invest not only in roads, transportation, and buildings but also in cultural infrastructure.

Public art contributes to:

• Neighborhood revitalization
• Cultural tourism
• Community identity
• Educational opportunities
• Increased civic engagement
• Economic development
• Enhanced quality of life

Research consistently shows that vibrant public spaces enriched by art attract residents, visitors, businesses, and investment while strengthening local pride.

For Miami, public art has become an important component of the city’s international image, complementing architecture, design, hospitality, and cultural institutions.

Diversity as Miami’s Greatest Medium

Few American cities possess the extraordinary cultural diversity found in Miami.

Latin American, Caribbean, African American, Indigenous, European, and Asian influences converge throughout the city, creating a unique visual landscape where multiple histories coexist.

Public art reflects this diversity through projects addressing:

• Migration
• Identity
• Climate change
• Memory
• Social justice
• Environmental sustainability
• Cultural heritage
• Community resilience

Rather than presenting a single historical narrative, Miami’s public artworks reveal the complexity of contemporary urban life.

The Relationship Between Public Art and Urban Design

Increasingly, public art is integrated into the planning process rather than added after construction.

Architects, landscape architects, engineers, urban planners, and artists collaborate to create environments where artistic interventions become part of the physical structure itself.

This interdisciplinary approach allows public art to influence:

• Pedestrian circulation
• Spatial perception
• Environmental experience
• Social interaction
• Place-making

The result is an urban environment where aesthetics and functionality reinforce one another.

Temporary Public Art

While permanent monuments remain important, temporary installations have become equally significant.

Temporary public art allows artists to respond quickly to contemporary issues, experiment with new materials, activate underused spaces, and engage communities in changing ways.

Because these works exist for limited periods, they often generate stronger public dialogue while encouraging repeated visits and documentation through photography and social media.

Their impermanence becomes part of their conceptual strength.

Public Art in the Digital Age

The meaning of public art has expanded dramatically through digital technologies.

Today, a public artwork exists simultaneously in physical and digital space.

Visitors photograph installations.

Videos circulate through Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube.

Curators publish essays.

Artificial intelligence indexes articles, interviews, and images.

Search engines connect audiences worldwide to artworks located within a single neighborhood.

In this new ecosystem, documentation has become an extension of the artwork itself.

Artists who thoughtfully archive and publish their public projects create lasting digital records that continue reaching audiences long after temporary installations disappear.

Sustainability and the Future of Public Art

Miami faces unique environmental challenges, including sea-level rise, hurricanes, extreme heat, and rapid urban development.

Increasingly, artists respond by incorporating sustainable materials, ecological research, recycled elements, native landscapes, and community participation into their public projects.

Public art becomes not only an aesthetic experience but also an opportunity to educate audiences about environmental responsibility and the future of coastal cities.

Public Art as Collective Experience

Unlike artworks encountered in museums, public art belongs simultaneously to artists, communities, and the city itself.

Its audience is unlimited.

Children, commuters, tourists, students, collectors, architects, and residents all become participants.

Each interaction generates new meanings beyond the artist’s original intention.

This openness makes public art one of the most democratic forms of artistic expression.

Miami as a Living Museum

Miami’s greatest museum may not be enclosed by walls.

Its neighborhoods, parks, waterfronts, transit systems, cultural districts, and civic spaces together form a living collection where contemporary art intersects with architecture, landscape, history, and everyday life.

As Miami continues to evolve as a global cultural capital, public art will remain central to its identity—not simply beautifying the city but shaping how communities experience, interpret, and imagine their shared future.

In this context, public art becomes more than an object placed within the urban landscape. It becomes an ongoing conversation between artists and the public, transforming the city itself into both canvas and collaborator.