Giuseppe Maiorana

A Return to Presence

50 New Artworks
Dubai, 6 May 2026

Oblong Contemporary presents A Return to Presence, a significant new exhibition unveiling a curated selection of 50 newly arrived artworks.

More than a presentation of new works, the exhibition marks a moment of recalibration — a return to the essential experience of art as presence, encounter, and shared space.

The selection brings together long-awaited works by Annalù, Stefano Bombardieri, Umberto Ciceri, alongside the sculptural animal bronzes of Giuseppe Maiorana, and the refined visual compositions of Robert Hromec. Complementing the dialogue, the sculptural forms of Gustavo Vélez, carved in marble, introduce a dimension of material clarity and meditative balance. The newest works by Cveto Marsič will also be on display, expanding the exhibition with a distinct painterly perspective rooted in landscape, rhythm, and abstraction.

At its core, the exhibition unfolds as a conversation between form and perception — where sculpture and painting operate not only as objects, but as presences.
Maiorana’s bronzes distill the animal figure into archetypal form — silent, grounded, and enduring. Bombardieri explores weight and existential tension, while Ciceri introduces movement and poise. Annalù expands material language through light and layered transparency. Hromec constructs visual depth through gesture and rhythm, and Vélez shapes marble into meditative clarity, balancing void and volume.

In a time marked by complexity and fragmentation, the exhibition offers something increasingly rare: a space to gather, to reconnect, and to experience art in its most immediate form.

The exhibition opens on 6 May 2026 from 7 PM, with a cocktail reception at Oblong Contemporary, Al Khayat Art Avenue, Al Quoz 1, Dubai.

This presentation introduces a highly limited selection of works, many of which are unique or part of small editions, and will be made available for acquisition for the first time during the evening.

Collectors are invited to engage closely with the artworks and to secure key pieces prior to wider release.

RSVP required
info@oblongcontemporary.com

Alongside his renowned bronze sculptures, Maiorana is now presenting a new and distinctive medium currently in development, within the series Pebbles.

This new body of work, Pebbles, is constructed using marine-grade plywood and aluminium, layered with enamel to create compositions where material becomes both structure and concept. The works explore the tension between organic and geometric forms, where a precise square format contains the softer, eroded silhouette of a river pebble.

The contrast between the warm, absorbent surface of the marine plywood and the cold, reflective aluminium plate is not merely aesthetic, but conceptual—bringing together two temporal dimensions: the slow rhythm of nature and the immediacy of human intervention.

The river pebble is not merely a natural result; it is one of the primordial images of human experience. In archaic cultures, stone takes shape as a primary presence, an element of orientation and of the sacralization of space. From menhirs to votive stones, to apotropaic objects, the pebble is a sign of permanence and solidity, of continuity, of a time that precedes and outlasts humanity. Its smoothed, essential, unadorned form has often been perceived as a manifestation of a primordial cosmic order.

In this sense, the “step” between the two materials is not simply a structural solution, but a true phenomenological rupture: it is the point at which the continuity of the surface is interrupted, revealing an irreducible difference. Here the gaze stumbles, lingers, becomes aware of the gap between fullness and void, between containment and escape, between measure and indeterminacy.

The square format, rigorous and geometric, acts as a boundary of symbolic containment: it represents the human will to order, delimit, and stabilize. And yet, within it, the organic form of the pebble introduces a silent disturbance: a presence that eludes geometry while remaining inscribed within and contained by it. The result is a suspended balance, never definitively resolved.

These nine works from the Pebbles series embody what can be understood as “geometries of becoming”—objects that hold within them both permanence and transformation. The compositions invite a contemplative engagement, where the act of viewing becomes a meditative experience, rooted in balance, material presence, and perceptual awareness.

Now on view in Forte dei Marmi, this presentation offers a focused insight into a new direction in Maiorana’s artistic language—one that is both materially rigorous and conceptually precise.

Oblong Contemporary is proud to collaborate with Giorgetti for Dialoghi Creativi, an immersive exhibition where contemporary art and interior design come together in perfect harmony. Hosted within the refined setting...

"I am a whale." Giuseppe Maiorana, a refined and eclectic Sicilian artist with Polish blood in his veins, starts from this fascinating, yet unusual identification to narrate the exhibition "Theorein," a series of bronzes that will be inaugurated on Saturday, May 4th at 5:30 PM on the ground floor of Forte di Leopoldo I in Forte dei Marmi, where it will remain until June 2nd, 2024.