The Omaggio a Mario Schifano project came about spontaneously, almost naturally, and evolved thanks to the determination of Antonella Villanova and Alessandro Bagnai, who decided to carry it out by juxtaposing the wonderful large canvases of Mario Schifano with this obviously minute jewelry work of mine.

It often happens to me, while working, to discover assonances between my works and those of artists who have marked my path of study and education in general. Sometimes these quotations are entirely spontaneous, as if emerging from layers of removed memories of languages that are now part of our cultural baggage; sometimes certain references, are sought and decided, like a tribute, a thank you for those traces that great artists like Schifano have left in their passage. So, one day, while working on a project regarding words and contractions used for communication on the web, I made a piece of jewelry all full of stars with a shape that was more than reminiscent of the stems of Mario Schifano's unforgettable palms. The shapes, the stars, the letters: it could only be a tribute to Mario Schifano.
This was the start that was followed by a project planned by Galleria Villanova and Galleria Bagnai that was very stimulating that gave me the precious opportunity to retrace some of the stages of Mario Schifano's complicated life and wonderful art and to rework some of the recurring themes in his works. With the intention of preserving that gestural immediacy and expressive freshness that distinguishes most of his works, and at the same time using the necessary and meticulous, almost obsessive, care that the making of jewelry requires, I tried to express in my own language my profound gratitude to this great artist who has etched indelible imprints in the history of twentieth-century art.

Monica Cecchi