Riccardo Mazzei
Visual Artist
(Re)Create Residency
Castlenuovo Calcea, Italy

Having engaged subjects as diverse as political icons, natural and animal elements and human portrait, my work reproduces emotionally charged pictorial language, arranging them into new conceptually layered pieces. These themes are combined into collages that feature a traditional Chinese sketching painted monochrome, juxtaposed on green tea treated paper with iron oxidation, and embellished with uncoated white painted stenciled multilingual text. The color white reinforces the real quality of words, suggests sense of time, and formally connects the disparate parts in each picture. The texts from fragments of poems and cubist paintings provide clues to content and interpretation. I use a variety of different papers and processes in each project with consistent methodology. The subject matter of each body of work determines the materials and the forms of the work. Each project consists of multiple pieces, in a collage media, grouped around the following themes and meanings: Joss Paper, in representation of Mediterranean symbols; Green Paper, in honor of poetry and alchemy; Stereo Paper, in offering of pagan gods; Date Paper, in praise of the encounters and Metro Paper, in celebration of re-use. I have been collaborating with Legambiente (League for the Environment) for eco-compatible installations in Island of Elba, since 2012.