EXHIBIT CONCEPT — PRESENZA

PRESENZA is a meditation on place, time, geography, and awareness. The works draw from the physical outlines of Miami Beach—its islands, waterways, and constructed edges—not as symbols of spectacle, but as complex landscapes where natural and human histories overlap. The collection reflects on the idea that presence is not a static state.
It is a composition of fragments, contradictions, and moments—some clear, some fractured, some unresolved. Together they create the experience of the present.

Miami, where GAILAZ was born and where both artists now create, becomes the quiet foundation of the work: a place continuously reshaped by tides, interventions, and reinvention. A place with deep potential to nurture cultural practices beyond its popular image.

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THE OBJECTS

Below are the four original pieces shown at Alcova, with their technical attributes and conceptual foundations.

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1. PRESENZA — TOTEM LAMP
Sculptural light — freestanding and ceiling-anchored

Measuring Ø 9 inches by 7′-2″ and weighing 38 lb, the piece is built over an internal metal frame with successive hand-applied layers of linen and plaster, finished with hand-worked OIKOS Marmorino sealed to preserve its tactile surface, and embedded with Miami Beach sand and shells, all assembled in the GAILAZ workshop.

Formed like a cylindrical snowball rolled across Miami Beach, PRESENZA gathers traces of the city—plaster, Marmorino, sand, shells—each material holding a moment in time.

Presence here is understood as accumulation: small gestures, small imperfections, and small decisions settling into a whole. The Totem stands as a quiet archive of becoming—
a recognition that a life, a city, or a practice is built through countless acts of awareness.

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2. JEZOS — WALL CARPET

Handwoven textile object — wall-hung

Measuring approximately 8 × 5 feet, the wool-and–bamboo-silk piece was conceived by GAILAZ, handwoven by Amir Rug Gallery—an Iranian atelier based in Miami—and mounted in the GAILAZ workshop with custom hanging hardware.

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JEZOS draws its proportions from the outline of Indian Creek and Bal Harbour Island, interpreted through textile rather than cartography.
The wool and bamboo silk shift across the surface like an abstracted geography—currents, edges, and contours woven into a single plane.

The piece references the spirit of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Surrounded Islands, where color and form reframed the perception of Miami’s waterways.
JEZOS continues that approach in a quiet, permanent form: a reminder that place is made of multiple influences and moments that coexist without perfect alignment.

Presence here is compositional—a meeting of fragments that create a larger sense of meaning.

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3. SUNSET — MIRROR

Architectural mirror — reflections of land and light

Measuring approximately 36 × 65 inches, the piece combines one extra-clear silver mirror panel with three warm bronze panels, all precision-cut with softened edges and mounted on a custom support system fabricated by Maestrale Interiors, long-time partners of the studio.

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SUNSET takes its shape from Sunset Island, one of Miami Beach’s constructed landforms shaped during early coastal transformation efforts.
Rather than celebrating those interventions, the piece reflects on how landscapes shift through time—how human and natural forces coexist in tension and exchange.

The bronze surface recalls the warm, low light of Miami’s sunset,
while the clear silver evokes the brightness of sunlight reflected on the water.

SUNSET is presence as reflection and horizon:
a quiet acknowledgment that identity—of a person or a place—is built from many moments that sit side by side, without needing to resolve into a single narrative.

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4. FOLLOW YOUR HEART — SET OF 4 TERRACOTTA OBJECTS

Four sculptural vessels — functional and symbolic

Hand-sculpted from a terracotta-based mix with natural pigments, assembled from intentionally imperfect parts without carving or sanding, the four pieces include two small containers and two palo santo/sage burners, all finished with a breathable matte seal.

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These vessels express PRESENZA at intimate scale. They are assembled from pieces that do not fully match; some surfaces break, some volumes interrupt each other, some contain deliberate gaps. They reflect the idea that presence is in the process, not the perfection. That beauty can emerge from discontinuity. That becoming is not linear.

In the context of Miami, they speak to a city continually reshaped—by culture, climate, people, and imagination. They are reminders that following one’s heart rarely creates symmetry, but always creates authenticity.

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THE COLLECTION — A STATEMENT

PRESENZA is GAILAZ’s reflection on Miami Beach as a place of complexity, contradiction, and ongoing transformation. Not a postcard, not a stereotype, but a landscape of potential for creativity, community, and cultural depth. The work honors the idea that presence is an act of awareness: of where you stand, of what shaped the ground beneath you, and of what you choose to create next.