“Sand Relief”
World Ocean’s Day
Miami Beach, FL
(2025)

Emerging from this research, the artist designed a series of sculptural rakes inspired by the ornamental language of Miami’s Art Deco heritage—tools conceived to inscribe ephemeral gestures into the sand.

Shapiro collaborated with ArtSail to lead a series of community workshops engaging youth from Breakthrough Miami, Overtown Youth Center, and The Motivational Edge. These sessions invited participants to investigate the architectural landscape of Miami and its evolving relationship to the ocean.

Sand Relief activates these tools in a participatory performance along the shoreline, where community members etched fluid, temporary patterns into the earth. These transitory markings, soon dissolved by the incoming tide, gesture toward the fragile intersection of the city’s built environment and its natural surroundings.

A video documenting the work offers a meditation on memory, impermanence, and the collective imprint we leave on the planet.

As part of World Ocean Day 2025, Shapiro joined the Sheroes of the Ocean panel, hosted by the 1Hotel South Beach and moderated by ArtSail Founder and Executive Director, Ombretta Agro Andruff. Shapiro was joined by TV personality and science communicator Danni Washington; sustainable seafood expert Alejandra Sanchez; Director of the Shark Research and Conservation Program at University of Miami, Dr. Catherine MacDonald; and Dr. Shelby Thomas.

A group of women on stage speaking about art, science and the ocean during World Oceans Week 2025 at the 1 Hotel South Beach.

For the fifth edition of Ocean Flags, ARTSail commissioned artist Lauren Shapiro to design the 2025 series, titled simply OCEANS. Each flag represents one of the letters in the word “OCEANS,” drawing inspiration from the international maritime signal code.

The flag designs combine each corresponding letter with concentric rings, creating a visual and conceptual link to the sand drawings produced using the Sand Relief rakes.

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