Cammie Staros | Pompeii

Nazarian / Curcio is pleased to present Pompeii, an installation of new sculptures by Los Angeles-based artist Cammie Staros. For her fourth solo exhibition with the gallery, Staros invokes the ancient city’s destruction as a lens through which to view our contemporary moment—one marked by environmental precarity, sudden disruption, and shifting historical narratives. Created in the year following the 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, Pompeii examines how fragility and endurance intertwine, using the language of archaeology and classical craft to consider collapse, preservation, and the traces that remain.

Central to the exhibition is a hand-made ceramic floor of fired earthenware tiles Staros has been making and accumulating for over a decade. Fired to varying degrees of maturity, the tiles are intentionally unstable, cracking underfoot as visitors move through the space. Over time, the path worn into the floor becomes an evolving record of those who have come before.