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The Environmental Artwork of Gustavo Oviedo and Edwin Villasmil
Celebrating Earth Month
4/14/23
By: M. M.
In recognition of Earth Month in April and Earth Day on April 22, we are highlighting two environmental artists whose works are part of the Library’s Permanent Art Collection: Gustavo Oviedo and Edwin Villasmil. Although their art styles are quite different as well as their approaches to the ecological subject, they both exemplify the power of art to draw attention to local issues that have a global impact.
Oviedo is a contemporary artist who has been living and working in Miami for the last two decades. A big part of his lifestyle in South Florida involves navigating the waterways, so much so that he likes to call himself an “underwater ninja pirate.” Oviedo’s fascination with the ocean has led him to deeply explore the Biscayne Bay area from the surface and below. His artwork centers around abstract expressionist drawings with marine forms, found art created from trash collected from mangroves and found floating in the water and underwater photography.
"Little by little, my art habits of documenting and looking for patterns and little things within my environment started to kick in," Oviedo told the Miami New Times in 2019. "I can't claim that I'm an environmentalist, but I'm very conscious of the problems, and my art is indirectly influenced by the things that I see." By documenting his surroundings, Oviedo captures the detrimental effects of human negligence towards the physical environment, both in the short and long term.
Villasmil, who has lived in Miami since 2004, defines himself as an artist, educator and environmental activist.
“I consider my role as an artist to be that of a social communicator. I believe that someone has to say something, and that responsibility is to engage people of all ages with social and environmental problems through art and education.”
Villasmil has a long trajectory of collaborations with the Miami-Dade Public Library System where he has held several art exhibits over the years and conducted Eco-Art workshops that he explains as “a contemporary form of environmental art that I used as a skill to sensitize people about the environmental situations. Eco-Art Workshop is a path to communicate, to stimulate dialogue, to educate and to contribute to social transformation.”
Villasmil and his collaborator and wife, Elba Martinez, have researched and documented the Everglades for years. As a result, they have created an extensive graphic chronicle of the Everglades’ history and its global significance. From illustrations to video animations, they have experimented with a large variety of artistic mediums to advocate for the preservation of the most valuable treasure in the South Florida ecosystem.
Samples from the Everglades series featuring Ernest Francis Coe and Marjory Stoneman Douglas. 2006
We encourage you to check out more works by Gustavo Oviedo and Edwin Villasmil and Elba Martinez in our Digital Collections. Simply click on their names to see more.