We are lucky to have such a dedicated and inspiring team of talented artists to help us facilitate our events and bring to life beautiful ocean-inspired works of art that demonstrate why ocean conservation is so important. Learn more about our team members below!
Kim Rizio
Kim Rizio is a Miami based artist who is just as at home creating large public displays in tile as she is creating small, commissioned oil paintings. Her works can be seen in private homes, public collections, architectural landmarks and art classrooms throughout South Florida.
While she has a long track-record of working closely with architects to create stunning interior and exterior pieces, she is just as likely to sit one-on-one with a private client to create the perfect commissioned piece. Her abilities to work large and small, public and private, professional and personal have given her the opportunity to create a broad array of work for an incredibly varied clientele.
In addition to creating art, Kim also enjoys teaching art to both adults and children. Please feel free to contact Kim at kimrizio@gmail.com
Meme Ferre
Meme Ferre discovered an epic moment at four years old in her grandfather’s studio on Biscayne Bay in Miami. In that instant, the satin sunrise ignited the morning light as it seesawed, dancing and bouncing on the ripples of the sun washed sea. She grabbed the moment and somehow turned it into a lifetime. She has reinterpreted these embryonic memories into her artwork.
Her life later followed the circuitous route of her ancestry from Miami to Cuba and Venezuela then back to Puerto Rico. It is in the verdant Puerto Rican mountain range that she is able to capture the essence of the tropical American percussion.
She is presently the resident artist at The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center, Key Biscayne, Fl and Art Educator with MDCPS, Miami, Fl. Her artwork is in the collection of The Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Edwin Villasmil
He began his artistic career in theater and painting. Between 1965 and 1989, he studied at Universidad Pedagogica. In 1972, he moved to the United States and lived in New York and Washington, D.C., while studying graphic arts, sculpture, jazz and theater. In 1975, upon his return to Venezuela, he founded Espacios Culturales and taught. In 1979 after undertaking a trip for observations and study through Europe and North Africa, when he returned home, he moved from the city to the country, where he developed a series of environmental projects. In 1998, he received his Bachelors of Arts from the University Fermin Toro.
In 2002, he participated in the International Festival Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona, Spain. In recent years, he has investigated the relationship between art, society, and nature. He has been honored with important awards and acknowledgements, his art works are in museums, private and public collections, he had had several publications and renown critics have taken notice of his works. In the past, he has been president of the Venezuelan Association of Artists of the Plastic Arts.
He is a member in good standing of the Asociacion Interncional de Artes Plasticas (UNESCO). Since 2004, he resides in Miami, FL.
Isabel Gouveia
Isabel Gouveia, who has a background in painting, printmaking, and new media, was born and raised in Brazil and currently lives and works in Lake Worth, FL. Isabel graduated as an Industrial Designer from the Arts Foundation Armando Alvares Penteado in Sao Paulo, and as an MFA in Visual Arts from Florida Atlantic University 2014.
Gouveia has been the recipient of many awards including: two Friedland Project Grants (2013, 2014); Best In Show in the County Contemporary: All Media Juried Show at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, FL (2013), and the Artist In Residency 2015/16 at the Armory Art Center.
Her work manifests her concerns with subverting processes and finding new ways to modify results, mainly through intuition and chance, and employ them as obstructions to the production lines that push us down the path toward an accelerated entropic state.
Luis Valle
My work reflects my obsession and influence with the ancient past, spirituality, the super- natural and the divine. I am a local artist originally from Managua, Nicaragua. Being displaced from my homeland at a young age has caused me to reflect on my native cultures’ heritage and history. Some influences come from the actual region while others have been absorbed by other indigenous cultures and world traditions.
Borrowing elements from surrealism, aboriginal, pre-Colombian and shamanistic indigenous societies I paint images conveying the world as moving fluid energy. My work is a contemporary approach of creating images to touch the soul. I am a strong believer that spirituality has been lost in the mix of commercialism, trends and fashion in art. My goal is to make art that not only looks good to the eye and fits your home but also touches a part of you where words just can’t describe.
I work in various mediums from canvases, large-scale murals, the female body and video. Through the various mediums the act of creation is a process where I attempt to transmit my images through divine inspiration. Angelic spirit guides, power animals, nature and the subconscious mind are all aspects that can be found in my work. Recently my focus has been painting large-scale murals where the community and passer by’s can appreciate what I do. I have found that creating art in the streets gives me a certain satisfaction that the galleries and institutions can’t provide. The effect that my work has on others is greatly magnified when it is put out in the open for the world to see.