YONKERS, NY.- From a distance, Plastic Reef appears to be a colorful and beautiful underwater world. Up close, one can see the hundreds of pieces of plastic, which are carefully cut and arranged. The result is playful yet communicates a real and present threat. In this installation, artist Frederico Uribe challenges us to reflect on Mother Nature’s pivotal presence and be inspired to give back what was taken from her: marine species and corals.

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Federico Uribe currently lives and works in Miami. In 1996, the artist abandoned his paint brushes and canvases in favor of household objects. His artwork resists classification and emerges from intertwining everyday objects in surprising ways that maintain a formal reference to art history. Over the past decade, his artwork has been collected by and featured in multiple museums around North and South America and exhibitions in Europe and Asia.

In Plastic Reef, the artist weaves together everyday plastic objects—such as used bottles, bottle caps, plastic cutlery, flip flops, and more—in curious and unpredictable ways to recreate a marine coral reef and its interdependent life forms. With his unique sense of beauty, Uribe plays with the juxtaposition between this whimsical and lively subject matter and its potentially destructive material—plastic. The artist confronts and reminds of the fragility of life in this vibrant world. Uribe invites reflection on the indiscriminate use of plastic and the disastrous impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems worldwide. More than ten million metric tons of plastic enters our oceans every year, and it persists in the environment for centuries. Our plastic waste is endangering all the world’s oceans, including life-sustaining coral reefs. The artist first created Plastic Reef as a special display at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Federico Uribe stated, “Living in a coastal city has made me very conscious and sensitive about the need to conserve marine environments and ecosystems. Plastic production is increasingly inexorable, particularly in the developing world, and it is an indicator of development.”

The themes of nature’s interdependence and regeneration explored by the artist complement the concurrent exhibition Cycles of Nature: Highlights from the Collections of the HRM and Art Bridges.