230ROOMS
Preliminal
Premises
FIU MFA · Florida International University
Organized by Jonathan Perez
Four practices at the threshold
Preliminal Premises brings together four graduating MFA artists from Florida International University ahead of their Spring 2027 thesis exhibitions. Working across sculpture, screenprinting, ceramics, painting, experimental photography, and projection, the artists explore memory, migration, and dislocation through distinct material processes. Gathered in one space just before that threshold, the works stand as early propositions, offering a provisional glimpse of four evolving practices and the possibilities of what may follow.
The MFA in Visual Arts at Florida International University is an interdisciplinary graduate program that supports artistic experimentation, critical inquiry, and the development of independent artistic practices. Bringing together artists working across diverse media and methodologies, the program emphasizes dialogue, material exploration, and sustained engagement with contemporary art through studio practice, critique, and research.
Paulette Harrington
Paulette Harrington earned her BFA from SUNY Purchase and has exhibited since 1994. Working across painting, mixed media, and installation, she explores the relationship between memory, transformation, perception, and spiritual awareness. Rooted in a lifelong engagement with meditation and Eastern philosophy, she works intuitively with reclaimed materials, found objects, and photographic slides, creating opportunities for contemplation and discovery rather than fixed narratives.
- Transparencies, 2026250 hand-painted photographic slides: alcohol ink on acetate in repurposed 35 mm slide mounts, presented with overhead projector · Each slide 2 × 2 in.; projection variable
Vero Murphy
When moving to a new country, we often undergo a kind of “metamorphosis” that involves adapting to the new geography, weather, food, and language. Yet many of us continue to carry a piece of our native land through cultural habits we uphold and proudly pass on. In the Displacement series, Murphy explores the geographical displacement of the cultural habit of “tomar mate,” originally rooted in rural South America, which has crossed borders while still carrying its spirit of community and connection.
- From the Displacement series, 2025–2026Screen printing with yerba mate tea, plexiglass, metal and wood pedestal · 15 in. diameter
Nina Ellery Oliveira
Nina Ellery Oliveira is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist and creative professional working across photography, video, installation, and object-based practices. Her work explores materiality and the processes through which images and objects acquire meaning. Her research examines how inherited memory creates, unsettles and reinforces identity, using postmemory as a framework and photography as a means through which memory is transmitted across generations.
- The Liminal Pause of Pliant Recall, 2026Hand sewn darkroom test strips (some unfixed), cotton thread · 23.6 × 24.8 in.
- Confabulation, 20254 × 6 in. photographs, projection mapping of video · Video, 2:15 min.
- Poke. Fill. Repeat., 2025Bubble wrap, ink, rope, wooden pegs · Dimensions variable
Eduardo Sayegh
Eduardo Sayegh (b. 1989, Caracas, Venezuela) is a sculptor based in Miami, Florida, whose work centers on memory, migration, and human relationships. He works primarily with ceramics, a medium he values for its complexity, physicality, and expressive range. Moving between realism and abstraction, his sculptural installations balance fragility with strength, and stillness with movement, inviting reflection on the quiet and powerful forces that shape who we are and how we connect with others.
- The Bookcase, 2025Unfired white and brown stoneware, unfired white and terracotta earthenware, porcelain, pinewood · 72 × 60 × 12 in.
Available Works
Works by Paulette Harrington, Vero Murphy, Nina Ellery Oliveira and Eduardo Sayegh are available to acquire.
View price listDecember 3–5, 2026
Gold Dust Motel · 7700 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33138