Michele Oka Doner is an internationally renowned artist whose career spans five decades. Her work is fuelled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world, from which she derives her formal vocabulary. The breadth of her artistic production encompasses sculpture, drawing, public art, functional objects, video, artist books, and costume and set design.

She is well known for creating numerous permanent art installations throughout the United States, including Flight at Reagan International Airport, Arlington, VA; Radiant Site at the Herald Square MTA station, New York; and the mile and quarter-long bronze and terrazzo concourse, A Walk on the Beach at Miami International Airport.

Oka Doner’s work is found in the collections of MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Musée des Arts Décoratifs (The Louvre), the V&A, the University of Michigan, Yale, and Harvard University museums, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among others. She has received numerous awards, including those given by the United Nations Society of Writers and Artists, the Pratt Institute, the New York State Council of the Arts, and the Knight Foundation.

In 2016 she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Michigan, where she earned her undergraduate and MFA degrees. She is currently Artist in Residence at the New York Botanical Garden. Oka Doner is the author or subject of numerous books, including Everything Is Alive from Regan Arts.

Born and raised in Miami, she maintains a studio and residence in Soho, New York.

Photo credit; Marc Heldrens. Courtesy of Michele Oka Doner