"The Possible Paradise" Artist Statement / Installation
This world within my installation is not separate from my everyday life: it is a parallel universe that coexists with me, an extension of my most intimate visions. It speaks of a profound journey, a movement toward a dreamed place that is not outside, but within. A possible paradise, built from desire, which becomes the driving force behind this voyage.
In this journey, there are no maps—only signs. A ship sails through space, powered by mermaid tails, floating among constellations and paradise flowers. Fantastical beings, archetypes, and symbolic characters accompany me, populating this world that feels just as real as the one beneath my feet.
Prayer is the way in. Not as a religious ritual, but as a profound act of connection. To pray is to close the eyes and open the heart. It is a way to enter, to inhabit this place, and also to return whenever I need to. Prayer becomes the navigation tool—a compass of the soul.
This installation is that portal. An invitation to believe in the invisible, to build our own paradise, to desire with intensity and live within it. Because the journey never ends: every time desire burns, the ship ignites once more.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Born in 1958 in Tucumán, Argentina, Leiva graduated from the Fine Arts School of the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. He continued his studies in Buenos Aires and moved to Miami in 1990. In 1996, he extended his practice to sculpture and ceramics. He lives part-time in Faenza, Italy, where he works with a variety of materials at the workshops of Ceramica Gatti. His work is the subject of the 2005 monograph Nicolas Leiva: The Fire of Self and Multiplication with scholarly text by Ricardo Pau-Llosa and Mariza Vescovo published by Bandecchi & Vivaldi in Italy. He has had many important solo and group exhibitions in the US and internationally, notably his 2023 solo exhibition, Historia de un día, Museo de Bellas Artes Laureano Brizuela, Catamarca, Argentina. Leiva was recently selected for the 2023 Miami Individual Artist (MIA) Grant, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs in Miami, FL. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA); The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana; the Berardo Collection in Lisbon, Portugal; the Gollinelli Collection in Bologna, Italy; and the Museum of Art of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. The Civic Museum of Marble, Carrara, Italy; Museo Maria Zambrano, Malaga, Spain; José Luis Cuevas Museum, Mexico City, México; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA; and Fundación Federico García Lorca, Madrid, Spain.