Biscayne National Park Gallery Features the Art of Carey Chen

Renowned marine artist Carey Chen will be the next featured artist at Biscayne National Park’s Dante Fascell Visitor Center Gallery.Chen’s near-photographic paintings portray a realism few artists can match. Chen, though, is quick to point out that a painting can capture much more than a photo ever could. The signature piece for the Biscayne National Park show is a perfect example. The bottom half of the painting is a diverse scene featuring animals and plants from three of the park’s ecosystems: the mangrove shoreline, Biscayne Bay and the coral reefs. Above the waterline, a great white heron flies past the Boca Chita lighthouse, tying in the remaining significant parts of the park. Paradise for Marine Life will feature this original painting, and over 20 additional original paintings and prints.

A native of Los Angeles, Chen was raised in Jamaica where he took an early interest in fishing, boating and marine life. When his family moved to Miami in the mid 1970s, he pursued varied interests like motorcycle and auto racing while running the family business, a chain of Miami video stores. Throughout these successful ventures, he knew his heart remained with the ocean, and he returned to fishing and boating, etching into his memory many spectacular encounters with billfish and other marine life. Eventually he decided to try and capture some of his memories by sketching and later painting them. After years of honing his skills as an artist, he has now been the featured artist for over 200 of the world’s most prestigious fishing tournaments. He is always quick to share his success by working with various conservation groups and other charities.