Since the 1990s’ Ayala Serfaty has forged a unique path in the world of contemporary design, creating and crafting conceptual lights and furniture. Her work has been described by scholars as ‘multi-disciplinary,’ as ‘fusion of art, craft, and design,’ as defusing the line between the natural and the abstract. Her approach focuses on ancient traditions, striving to revive their spirit and energies in unorthodox, unexpected, and innovative manner.
Ayala Serfaty became known for her SOMA, handcrafted sculptural lights named after a Greek term that describes the human body. She chose this name to enlighten the poetic qualities of her objects, which largely reveal the levels of abstractions that nature can project. In her recent Series, RAPA, she creates furniture made of handmade textile, crafting felt out of fibers carefully gathered by her from all over the world. RAPA is not a departure, but rather reconnecting with textile, the materiality that came to inform her work from its very beginning.
Ayala Serfaty was born in Tel Aviv, in 1962. She studied Fine Arts at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, and after graduating from the Middlesex Polytechnic in London, she settled in Tel Aviv, where she has lived and worked ever since. In 1996 she co-founded Aqua Creations Lighting and Furniture Atelier, acting as the atelier’s designer and creative director, until establishing her own art studio. For almost thirty years Ayala Serfaty has exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide.
Ayala Serfaty’s work was recently acquired by Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Arts and Design, the Mint Museum, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Corning Museum of Glass, and Indianapolis Museum of Art Her solo shows were held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Sculpture Museum Beelden Aan Zee, Den Haag. She participated in group shows in such museums as London Design Museum, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design in Nuremberg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, and Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, to name a few.
Studio Personnel
Ayala Serfaty works with trained artisans, with whom she developed a lifelong collaboration.
Eytan Hall, Anna Gautier, Tatyana Osharov, Avi Saina & Olesya Yolkin are all working in house, taking part in the creation of Ayala Serfaty’s studio pieces.
All images featured on this website were taken by Albi Serfaty, Elad Sarig, Yuli Serfaty or offered by museums.
Museum Collections
| Year | Museum | Piece | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Tel Aviv Museum of Art | Aqua Regia, 1996 | Acquisition |
| 2008 | Museum of Arts and Design | Webs, June 2008 | Commission |
| 2011 | Holon Design Museum | Primo Bianco, 2010 | Acquisition |
| 2012 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Wild, March 2009 | Acquisition |
| 2012 | Mint Museum | Joy of Transition, 2012 | Commission |
| 2012 | Boston Museum of Fine Arts | Andrea’s Trust, 2006 | Acquisition |
| 2013 | Houston Museum of Fine Arts | Once, May 2006 | Acquisition |
| 2015 | Corning Museum of Glass | Soma, 2015 | Commission |
| 2015 | Indianapolis Museum of Art | Memory, 2014 | Acquisition |
| 2021 | Museum Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs | Sangha, 2021 | Acquisition |
Education
| 1984 | Fine Arts | Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem |
| 1987 | Fine Arts | Middlesex Polytechnic, London |
Listed Solo Exhibitions
| Year | Gallery |
|---|---|
| 1994 | Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, Sculptural Furniture |
| 1997 | Gallery Inter Nos, Milan, Aqua Creations |
| 1998 | Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, Strasbourg Antoine Cicero & Ayala Serfaty une dialogue |
| 1998 | Gallery Blanchart, Milan, Ayala Serfaty |
| 2000 | Meta Gallery, Milan, Evolution 19 |
| 2007 | Lorenzelli Arte, Milan, Soma: The Beauty of the Moon through Clouds |
| 2008 | Tel Aviv Museum of Art - Soma light installation |
| 2009 | Sculpture Museum Beelden Aan Zee, Den Haag, the Netherlands, Soma Light Installation |
| 2009 | Cristina Grajales Gallery, Design Miami |
| 2011 | Cristina Grajales Gallery, New York, In Vein |
Listed Group Exhibitions
| Year | Gallery |
|---|---|
| 1991 | Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, The Next Generation |
| 1994 | Janco Dada Museum, Ein-Hod, Israel, Object Object: A Dialogue between Art and Design |
| 1995 | Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Germany, Design-Time |
| 1996 | Übersee Museum, Bremen, Germany, Design im Wandel |
| 2002 | Centre Pompidou, Paris, Carrefour de la Création |
| 2002 | The Rockland Center for the Arts, New York, Design show |
| 2003 | Neues Museum Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Design Museums of the World |
| 2003 | Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Nature Highly Artificial |
| 2004 | Dot Fifty One Gallery, Miami, Red, White and Blue |
| 2005 | Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Collect |
| 2005 | Triennale, Milan, Promisedesign, New Design from Israel |
| 2006 | Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York Solos: Design from Israel |
| 2006 | VIA Gallery, Paris, Surfaces |
| 2010 | London Design Museum, Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010 |
| 2010 | Chelouche Gallery for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, Re-Location |
| 2011 | Design Museum Holon, Israel, New Olds: Design between Tradition and Innovation |
| 2012 | Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, Israel, Cabinets of Wonders |
| 2013 | Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Woven Consciousness |
| 2014 | Design Museum Holon, Holon, Israel, Gathering |
| 2015 | Trapholt Museum of Modern Art & Design, Denmark, Fetishism |
| 2017 | Jewish Museum Hohenems, Austria, The Feminine Side of God |
| 2020 | Jewish Museum Frankfurt, Germany, The Feminine Side of God |
| 2020 | Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv Biennale of Crafts & Design |
| 2022 | Carpenters Workshop Gallery NY, The Female Voice in Modern Design, 1950-2000 |
| 2009-22 | Yearly presentations at international Design-Art fairs such as Art Basel, Salon of Art & Design NY, Collective NY, Nomad Monaco, PAD Raris |
Awards & Scholariships
| 1985 | America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship |
| 2006 | Israel Minister of Education and Culture’s annual Design Award |
Bibliography
| Publication | Title |
|---|---|
| Hadashot (October 3, 1993) | Aryeh Berkovitz, “Nighties News” |
| H’ir (December 12, 1995) | Esther Zandberg, “A Woman’s World” |
| I.D. Magazine (January-February, 1998), 77 | Paola Antonelli, “Making Waves” |
| The New York Times (April 1, 1999), 56 | Deborah Sontag, “Where the Fish Watch you Eat” |
| BVD (May 2003): 94-97 | Dov Kazenelson, “Under the Water” |
| Design Museums of the World (2004), 206-211. | Meira Yagid-Haimovici |
| 1000 Lights vol II (New York: Taschen, 2005): 446-9 | Charlotte and Peter Fiell, eds. |
| Tel Aviv Museum of Art catalogue for Soma Light Installation, 2008 | Meira Yagid-Haimovici, “It is the Light” |
| Haaretz, Nov. 2008 | Yuval Sa’ar, “Take your Sleeping Bad and spend the Night at the Museum” |
| Ayala Serfaty, In Vein (New York: Cristina Grajales Gallery, 2011) | Sarit Shapira, “Dewdrops of Light: On Ayala Serfaty’s Light Objects” |
| The New York Times (Novemb 2, 2011), D3 | Tim McKeohugh, “Ayala Serfaty’s Light Sculptures on Display” |
| Cultured Magazine (Winter, 2012), 118 | Tali Yaffe, “A Light Touch” |
| Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Arts website | Dafna Kauffmann, “Paludes” |
| in Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 15 (1) (April, 2014) | Nava Sevilla Sadeh, “A Subline Vision: Classical Concepts of Sublimation in Classical and Hellenistic Sculptural Goddess Images and their Manifestation in Artworks by Two Contemporary Israeli Artists, Lea Avital and Ayala Serfaty” |
| The Urban Glass Quarterly 140 (Fall, 2015), 50-53 | William Ganis, “Ayala Serfaty’s Shared Intimacies” |
69 Mazzeh Street
Tel Aviv 6578930, Israel
ayala@ayalaserfaty.com
+972 544 222 850
//
Maison Gerard Gallery
43 & 53 East 10th Street
New York, NY 10003
home@maisongerard.com
+1 212 674 7611
@ 2024 Ayala Serfaty, all rights reserved