Leandro Erlich “Coral Car I” The ReefLine Miami Beach

The ReefLine is Miami Beach’s highly anticipated upcoming art installation. Functioning as a 7-mile underwater public sculpture park, the ReefLine will be part snorkel trail and part hybrid reef. Florida’s Reef Tract— the world’s third- largest reef system—which once flourished along Miami’s coast has been profoundly affected by urban expansion and ecological degradation. The ReefLine seeks to restore and revitalize Miami’s reef and marine coastal ecosystem by merging art, science, and conservation.

The first work, Concrete Coral by Leandro Erlich, is slated to be submerged 600 feet offshore, 20 feet below the waves, in spring 2025. The sculpture, of 22 cars, is a new take on the sandcastle traffic jam, Order of Importance, the artist created on the beach for Miami Art Week in 2019.  

To accompany the Concrete Coral underwater Installation, Erlich teamed up with Kreëmart and Spanish porcelain brand Lladró to create a limited-edition series of unique porcelain creations exploring the intersection between art, sustainability, and environmental conservation. The Coral Car – The ReefLine Series is the first project of its kind for the Spanish porcelain brand within the framework of the brand’s sustainability initiative, Conscious & Creative.

This collaboration not only highlights the synergy between art and sustainability but also transforms Erlich’s concept of transmutation into tangible works of porcelain, embodying a shared commitment to balance, innovation, and environmental preservation. The creations of the Coral Car – The ReefLine Series are masterpieces of high craftsmanship, featuring over 1,000 hand-sculpted marine elements and exclusive glazes and finishes designed to reflect the boundless beauty of our fragile marine ecosystems.      

The first of the limited-edition sculptures in porcelain was unveiled at an exclusive dinner celebration hosted by The ReefLine and was followed by the exhibition of the first two decorative versions at Art Basel, Coral Car – The ReefLine I (Algae) at Luciana Brito Galleria and Coral Car I – The ReefLine (Seafoam) at Galleria Continua. 

A percentage of the proceeds from the art project will be donated to The ReefLine ’s cause.

The central theme of Concrete Coral is based on the idea of transmutation. The arrangement of a series of aligned cars, as if in a traffic jam, becomes the foundational structure for coral reef regeneration. In general terms, the phenomenal industrial development of the past 100 years has brought about an opportunity to improve quality of life, alongside a significant negative impact on ecosystems, which have been affected by human activity.

These changes have occurred at a dizzyingly rapid pace. In line with the idea that the planet requires actions to restore balance, Concrete Coral seeks to positively convey that it is possible to recover, and repair compromised environmental situations. The same ingenuity that has allowed us to develop marvelous inventions and the extraordinary capacity for innovation that now enables us to explore the vastness of the cosmos can also be applied to finding solutions for our planet.

Human action, associated with the footprint and negative impact on the planet, can also be redirected to seek new ways to mitigate this imbalance. The interrelation between nature and our activities in the industrial production chain has shown that we need innovations that promote balance rather than cause ecological disruptions.

In this way, transmutation becomes an act of redemption, transforming the fruits of human progress into a means to heal and renew our natural world.

— Leandro Erlich