Carolina Sardi

Carolina Sardi (born 1967, Argentina) is an Argentine sculptor based in Miami since 1995. She earned a master's degree in sculpture from the National University of La Plata, where she also studied architecture and urbanism, and trained with the sculptor Enio Iommi. On moving to Miami she took a studio at the South Florida Art Center on Lincoln Road, and later moved her studio to Little Haiti.

Sardi is best known for wall installations composed of organic elements cut from steel and aluminum: architectural abstract forms inspired by cell patterns, hand cut, welded and painted, with some of the paint then removed to reveal levels of texture. Working primarily in steel with plasma cutting and welding, she makes textured, patina-finished pieces that often incorporate mirrored, chrome and copper plating; in a recent series polished gold, copper or chrome surfaces let viewers find their own reflections and so add further readings to the work. Her wall compositions stand an inch or two off the wall so that they float in space, enhanced by light and shadow, while her free-standing and hanging pieces use the void as their main visual element. The practice joins organic, biomorphic forms to geometric precision and aligns itself with the constructive and concrete traditions of abstraction.

She has had solo exhibitions at Pan American Art Projects in Miami and Dallas, Galerie Lelia Mordoch in Paris, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Cheryl Hazan Gallery in New York, The Steps Gallery in London and Heriard-Cimino Gallery in New Orleans, and museum and institutional solo shows including Exquisite Tension at the Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo, Florida, Blue at the Miami-Dade County Government Center Gallery, Over/Under at Flashpoint in Washington, DC, Forest at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Bee at the MIA Gallery of Miami International Airport, Imaginary Lines at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC, and Free to be Captive at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale. She was included in the Heavy Metal / Women to Watch exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, and in 2023 Aldo Castillo Gallery presented her solo show Steel Compositions: The Art of Metal.

Sardi has broad experience designing, fabricating and installing public, private and corporate art projects, and has been commissioned for site-specific large-scale installations in many of Miami's acclaimed buildings and private homes. Commissions include wall sculptures for Miami-Dade Art in Public Places at the Port of Miami, the Ilona Building gate and fence for Oppenheim Architecture, lobby and suspended sculptures for the Related Group of Florida at the Icon, The Slade, Trump Tower and Icon Bay, the Epic Hotel and Grand Venetian in Miami, the Apogee Beach Building in Hollywood, Florida, the Belfiore Building in Houston, the Cleveland Clinic, the Prudential corporate collection in Des Moines, the Amaris Building in Washington, DC, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Salem, New Hampshire. Her work is held by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, the Art Museum of the Americas and Neiman Marcus, and in private collections across the United States, Europe, South Africa and Argentina.

Her awards include the Leo Chestler Visual Arts Contemporary Award from the Dade Community Foundation (2002), an Artist Workspace Fellowship at the Woodstock School of Art (1995), a Rotary International Foundation Fellowship in Mexico (1993) and a printmaking award at the Salón de la Mujer of the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes in La Plata (1990).