SERINA MAYER

Artist Statement

My sculptural assemblies were inspired by Assembly Theory, a scientific framework proposing that life emerges not from chance but from sequence — complexity requiring a particular order of becoming. I was drawn to the idea that life forms from the layered remnants and experiences which previously existed.

Life is layered, and so are the selves we create to exist within it. Through our experiences of love, loss, grief we shapeshift. What remains and what is absent are rarely separate — having to hold both the absence and the presence sometimes creates the pressure which forces a new configuration into being.

Each arrangement is one of infinite permutations, held together against its own impermanence.

I work with clay because it carries everything — weight, memory, the record of its own becoming. And still, it yields. It bears its own layers honestly — what was applied, what burned away, what survived the fire. These sculptures are an inquiry into how we come apart and what we become in the reassembling.

Artist Bio

Serina Mayer is a self-taught, New York-based, ceramic artist whose practice centers on multi-component sculptural assemblies. Working primarily in clay, she builds narrative-driven work that moves between personal story and material inquiry — exploring how meaning accumulates, how selves are layered, and how loss and transformation leave their shape in form. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions. She lives and works in East Hampton, New York.