‘NADA I, 2020’, a Unique Wall Light Sculpture by Ayala Serfaty

‘NADA I, 2020‘ is a unique wall light sculpture reminiscent of biomorphic forms. It is part of Ayala Serfaty's world-renowned ‘SOMA’ series (her "clouds"), a set of fascinating and intangible luminous sculptures named after the Greek word for the human body which involves an elaborate process of weaving and intertwining thinly blown glass. Work by the artist is notably included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Each ‘SOMA’ piece is handmade out of thin blown glass rods that are individually flame-worked until they partially melt and join together. Little by little a cobweb-like structure appears, real glass lace that is then sprayed with a clear polymer that also filters the light. The glass veins, that always remain visible under the translucent skin of polymer, embody both the power and the fragility of human beings.

‘SOMA’ captures the viewers’ gaze, bringing them to experience nature in its spiritual and emotional dimensions. Clouds, crystals of sparkling snow, corals or lichens: the assertion of life forms and the simultaneous impossibility of deciding between one or the other compels her work to rise above its own materiality and produces an irresistible drive toward the sublime. For Ayala Serfaty does not sculpt nature, but rather gives form to the breath of life.

Ayala Serfaty was born in Tel Aviv in 1962. She is a graduate in Fine Arts of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, and of Middlesex Polytechnic in London. She lives and works in Tel Aviv. For over twenty years, she has exhibited in museums worldwide such as the London Design Museum, the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, just to name a few. Her work is included in the permanent collections of numerous museums in the US: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the Museum of Arts and Design, NY, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Mint Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Indianapolis Museum of Art.