
Ayala Serfaty
Shah, Stool, 2014

Shah: (Persian: شاه, "king") is a title given to the emperors/kings and lords of Iran …

Inspired by luminous underwater plants and wildlife, mixed-media artist and designer Ayala Serfaty translates the structural and aesthetic qualities of the natural world into furniture and lighting. As a founding partner of Aqua Creations, she explores ways of transforming texture and calligraphy into three-dimensional objects. “Soma”—an ever-evolving project—involves an elaborate process of weaving and intertwining thinly blown glass, then layering the composite objects with tinted transparent glass veins that produce a seemingly gestural surface. Much like her other work, these light sculptures resemble aquatic forms such as crystals and seabed plants. Serfaty’s work is heavily influenced by Minimalist sculpture’s use of electric lighting and industrial techniques of creating surface and form.


Shah: (Persian: شاه, "king") is a title given to the emperors/kings and lords of Iran and of India. In Iran (Persia and Greater Persia) the title was continuously used; rather than King in the European sense, each Persian ruler regarded himself as the Shahanshah (King of Kings) or Emperor of the Persian …

Inspired by luminous underwater plants and wildlife, mixed-media artist and designer Ayala Serfaty translates the structural and aesthetic qualities of the natural world into furniture and lighting. As a founding partner of Aqua Creations, she explores ways of transforming texture and calligraphy into three-dimensional objects. “Soma”—an ever-evolving project—involves an elaborate process of weaving and intertwining thinly blown glass, then layering the composite objects with tinted transparent glass veins that produce a seemingly gestural surface. Much like her other work, these light sculptures resemble aquatic forms such as crystals and seabed plants. Serfaty’s work is heavily influenced by Minimalist sculpture’s use of electric lighting and industrial techniques of creating surface and form.