Michele Oka Doner is an artist whose work is fueled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world, from which she derives her formal vocabulary. Her artistic production includes sculpture, drawing, public art, functional objects, video, artist books, and costume and set design. She has created numerous permanent art installations throughout the world, including Radiant Site at the Herald Square MTA station in New York; A Walk on the Beach at Miami International Airport; and the entrance to the new Astronomy Museum in Shanghai.

Her work is found in the collections of MoMA, the Met, Whitney, Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Louvre, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as Michigan, Oxford, Yale and Harvard university art museums, among others. She has received many awards, including those given by UN Society of Writers and Artists, Pratt Institute, New York State Council of the Arts and the Knight Foundation. She was first Artist in Residence at the New York Botanical Garden and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Michigan, where she earned her undergraduate and MFA degrees. Oka Doner is the author or subject of numerous books, including Natural Seduction, Miami Beach: Blueprint of an Eden, Human Nature, Everything Is Alive, and Into the Mysterium.

Born in Miami Beach, Michele Oka Doner was recently designated Guardian of the City of Miami Beach’s Great Banyan Tree and represents Miami Beach as Ambassador for Arts and Culture.