In June 2008, Miami, Florida, artist Xavier Cortada traveled to the North Pole with sound artist Juan Carlos Espinosa to create paintings using Arctic water and install eco-art at 90 degrees North.

Cortada made a similar art trek to the South Pole in January 2007 as a recipient of an Antarctic Artists and Writers Program residency from the National Science Foundation. There he used sea ice, glacier and sediment samples provided to him by scientists working in Antarctica to paint on paper. He also did a mixed media portrait of Sir Ernest Shackleton, which is on permanent exhibit in the U.S. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.  For the Antarctica installation, Cortada planted 51 colored flags 10 meters apart, marking where the South Pole stood during each of the past 50 years, and placed 24 shoes in a circle around the Pole, each serving as a proxy for a person affected by global climate change. He also planted 24 flags around the South Pole to warn of the threat to Earth’s biodiversity. Using melted sea ice and acrylic paint, he wrote the scientific name of an endangered species on each flag, as well as the longitude of the habitat in which it struggles for survival. At the North Pole, Cortada will again do a series of paintings using melting ice. His installation will be a green flag to encourage the reforestation of native trees in the world.

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, will host an exhibit of art related to the polar regions from June 28, 2008, through June 7, 2009. Cortada’s paintings and the works of 30 other North American artists, including Native Americans and Canadian Inuit, are presented in four thematic sections: ice, landscape, wildlife, and human interactions.