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Michele Oka Doner
born 1945, American
Michele Oka Doner is one of today’s foremost artist-designers, whose prodigious career spans four decades. The breadth of her artistic production encompasses sculpture, furniture, jewelry, public art, and functional objects. All of Oka Doner’s work is fueled by her lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world, from which she derives her formal vocabulary.
She is well known for her numerous pubic art installations, including “A Walk on the Beach,” at The Miami International Airport (1995-2008) which features nearly a mile of dark terrazzo inlaid with bronze and mother of pearl. Recent work includes collections with Christofle and Steuben Glass as well as public art projects at Rutgers University and the Ocean County Library, both in New Jersey.
Her sculpture and functional objects have been acquired by several prestigious museums, among them The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Virginia Museum of fine Arts, and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Among her many publications are two monographs: Natural Seduction published by Hudson Hills Press (2003) examines the broad scope of Oka Doner’s work; and Workbook published by Oka Press (2004), which focuses on blueprints of thousands of cast bronzes for her public projects.
Education and Public Service
1966 Bachelor of Science & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1968 Master of Fine Arts, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Teaching Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1969 Post Graduate Work, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
Oka Doner has lectured at the University of Michigan, Pratt Institute, School of Visual Arts, the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum, the 92nd Street Y, the Brooklyn Museum, and many other academic and cultural institutions. She is a Founding Trustee of the Wolfsonian- FIU Museum, Miami Beach, Florida; she is a past trustee (2002-2007) of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York; and is a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Exhibitions
2013 Winter Group Show, Cristina Grajales Gallery, New York
2012 Design at Fairchild: Sitting Naturally, The Fairchild Gardens, Coral Gables, FL
2012 New York, New York Group Show, Cristina Grajales Gallery, New York
Works by Artist
- Available