Stratum: a Layered Perspective of South Florida - Artist Talk

exhibits Deering Estate’s 2025-2026 Artist-in-Residence Andrea Clement’s encaustic paintings, which capture the complexities of South Florida’s unique geological and hydrological landscape. Andrea Clement is a longtime practitioner of encaustic art, using heated beeswax, pigments, and damar resin to create vibrant, abstract paintings. Her residency has been spent exploring the earth’s physical structure, its history, and the processes which actuate its evolution. The encaustic paintings examine geological forces through the passage of time with hydrology: the movement, quantity and management of water on earth. Clement draws from observation of Deering Estate’s waterfront view of Biscayne Bay and current restoration projects, such as the Cutler Slough Restoration Project and Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The paintings involve Clement’s interest in and observation of geology: the physical structure, substances, and processes that act on the earth. She embodies geologic movements through abstract representations of oolite, fossils, erosion, infiltration, evapotranspiration, plate tectonics, geologic time, sedimentation. Through a process of layering, refining and carving pigmented beeswax, Clement creates colorful, heavily textured paintings that vivify the relationship between South Florida’s water and oolite sediments. At the center of the depicted geological processes, as it manifests in Clement’s work, is stratum: to layer. Just as encaustic painting begets the layering beeswax and resin, South Florida is composed of intricate layers which host its history and connect its inhabitants to the passage of time.

The Deering Estate ‘Contemporary Currents’ series is an annual program that integrates contemporary art with collections and historic houses. Artists are selected from the roster of past and current Artists-in-Residence at the Deering Estate to display their work on the second floor of the Richmond Cottage for a three to six-month period.

Date: Sunday, May 3rd, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: Richmond Cottage Garden Room

Date: Sunday, May 24th, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: Deering Estate Visitor Center Theater

About the Artist:
Andrea Clement is an Artist in Residence at Deering Estate and a Miami-based artist and educator whose photo encaustic work captures the beauty and fragility of Florida’s environment and wildlife. With over 30 years of experience in photography, her creative path has taken her from ancient ruins in Egypt to the wetlands of South Florida. Andrea earned an Associate’s
Degree in Professional Photography from the Southeastern Center for Photographic Arts in Daytona Beach, followed by a B.A. in Art History from the American University of Paris. While in Paris, she completed a one-year internship photographing artworks and ancient artifacts for the Research Laboratories of the French National Museums at the Louvre. This work later led her to the archaeological site of Tanis, Egypt, where she documented excavation findings as a site photographer. After relocating to Miami in 1996, Andrea continued photographing for galleries, collectors, and auction houses. Her focus shifted to maternity portraiture after a personal commission sparked a new creative direction—eventually earning her work a feature on the Discovery Health Channel. Since 2018, Andrea has dedicated her practice to photo encaustics, blending photography with collage, pigments, and wax to explore the layered stories of Florida’s natural landscape. She regularly hikes and kayaks through Everglades National Park, the Fakahatchee Strand, and Big Cypress to capture the local ecology that inspires her work. In addition to her studio practice, Andrea teaches photo encaustic workshops in Miami.

About the Deering Estate

Deering Estate, located at 16701 SW 72 Ave. in Miami, is a 21st Century house museum, cultural and ecological field station, and a national landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places, owned by the State of Florida and managed by Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department. Deering Estate is designated as one of seven Miami-Dade County “Heritage Parks” which have a vital role in our community’s history, environment and in providing recreational and cultural experiences.

Cultural Arts Programming at the Deering Estate is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and The Deering Estate Foundation, Inc.

About the Deering Estate Foundation

For those who treasure the Deering Estate, who advocate for its preservation and wish to invest in its future, The Deering Estate Foundation provides opportunities for individuals and corporations alike to partake in membership, signature events, and one-of-a-kind experiences, all in service of providing vital funding and support to the Deering Estate. Through these efforts, the foundation fulfills its mission to uphold the legacy of Charles Deering's cherished 1920s-era property, to provide funding for the cultural, educational and recreational experiences it offers, as well as its significant scientific and archaeological endeavors to conserve its diverse flora, fauna and the eight native ecosystems that thrive on its 450 acres, and to ensure its longevity as a prized American heritage site. Established in 1989, The Deering Estate Foundation, Inc. is a community-based charitable 501(c) 3 Florida Corporation and the philanthropic partner of the Deering Estate.

To request materials in accessible format, sign language interpreters, CART and/or any accommodation to participate in any Miami-Dade Parks-sponsored program or meeting, contact Gisel Prado at 305-755-7848 or [email protected], at least 7 days in advance to initiate your request. TTY users may also call 711 (Florida Relay Service).

Image: Shifting Tides, 2025
Courtesy of Artist Andrea Clement

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