Michele Oka Doner

Michele Oka Doner (b. 1945, Miami Beach) is an internationally renowned artist and author based in New York City whose work spans five decades. Fueled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world, from which she derives her formal vocabulary, her production encompasses media including sculpture, public art, prints, drawings, functional objects, artist books, costume and set design, and video.

Oka Doner is well known for creating over 40 public and private permanent art installations, including A Walk On The Beach, the mile-and-a-quarter-long bronze and terrazzo concourse at Miami International Airport, which is seen by 40 million travelers a year. Recent public works include Talisman: A Sacred Grove, a temporary installation on Park Avenue in New York City (2026), and BirdHouse, a permanent sculpture at Bayshore Park in Miami Beach (2026).She has authored or been the subject of eight books.-

Oka Doner has received grants from Knight Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and others, as well as accolades including the United Nations Society of Writers and Artists Award of Excellence and the Pratt Institute Legends Award. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where she also earned her undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts degrees.

Her work can be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre in Paris; and Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Her work is also held in museum collections at the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University and the University of Oxford, among numerous others nationally and internationally.

Michele maintains a studio in New York City. Learn more on her website here.

Commissioned Work

Film by Jorge Gonzalez Graupera