Pigments Zecchi, Florence, on RAW Italian canvas.

100% cotone Ghinea medio Pittura. 180g/mg, Milano

258×240H cm

Second skin

There is nothing superfluous, nothing distracting — only earthy pigment powder.

Monochrome. Pure in itself.

Self-sufficient.

Pigment, lying on the surface, carries its own independent power and life.

Powder, that can't hold on to it if it doesn't want to stay. And that's what it's all about.

There is something sacred about it — alchemy that transforms the invisible into form, the

fleeting into the eternal.

Taking the raw Florentine pigment powder in hand, skin meets mind.

Tactility begins where distance ends.

Running one’s fingertips, open palm, cheek.

Nothing is fixed.

The material chooses its depth.

Not backing down, realising that this series of works was never about Paris or Florence.

It's about dust, the powder that decides to stay, entering the canvas with water without residue.

«Second skin» is a series of drawings made with Florentine Zecchi pigments on cotton canvases

produced in an antica teleria in Gallarate, Milan, according to ancient Italian weaving traditions.

The raw canvas carries its own history, its inner memory of hands and time.

Pigments Zecchi, Florence, on RAW Italian canvas.

100% cotone Ghinea medio Pittura. 180g/mg, Milano

168×218 cm

66,1”x85,8”

Maria Koval is a Paris-based artist currently presenting her works within the Casa Cellai Art Program at Cellai Boutique Hotel in Florence, part of the Teritoria network and its curated cultural hospitality program.

Cellai is essentially a Florentine collector’s house transformed into a boutique hotel — intellectual, layered, nostalgic, artistic, and intentionally personal. Strongly shaped by the vision of owner and designer Francesco Cavallo, the hotel is known for its emotional and cultural atmosphere, where hospitality is approached almost as storytelling or stage design. Filled with antiques, books, paintings, travel objects, and eclectic details collected over decades, Cellai reflects the intimate spirit of an artistic Florentine home, where contemporary art becomes part of the hotel’s layered cultural identity.

What makes Cellai distinctive is that it treats hospitality almost like stage design or storytelling.

____

I got angry on me and washed the canvas in the washing machine.

It will come.

Pushing it under the table and hanging up again.

I became obsessed with painting myself, a full-length horse.

The head could not find its place on the 3 meter high canvas.

The horse is there, but not me.

Received another package of Zecchi pigments from Florence, greedily pressing the powders into the canvas, wanting to cover the remaining traces of the original painting.

It turned out to be impossible.

So that is how it must be, as it is.

Carefully, I hand washed the patch in the area of the neck, kissed it on the forehead, and signed my name.

‘02. 2026

Paris

“Second skin” is a series of autobiographical drawings made with Florentine Zecchi pigments on Italian 🇮🇹 canvases

_____

*Not for sale

“Second skin” is a series of autobiographical drawings made with Florentine Zecchi pigments on Italian 🇮🇹 canvas.

50×70cm Paper Fabriano 🇮🇹

Frame: solid wood, matte black, open-pore varnish (4 coats), natural grain. Profile 30 × 30 mm. Made in Germany.

“Second skin” is a series of autobiographical drawings made with Florentine Zecchi pigments on Italian 🇮🇹 canvases

50×70cm Paper Fabriano 🇮🇹

Frame: solid wood, matte black, open-pore varnish (4 coats), natural grain. Profile 30 × 30 mm. Made in Germany.

“Second skin” is a series of autobiographical drawings made with Florentine Zecchi pigments on Italian 🇮🇹 canvases

50×70cm Paper Fabriano 🇮🇹

Frame: solid wood, matte black, open-pore varnish (4 coats), natural grain. Profile 30 × 30 mm. Made in Germany.