Born in 1977 in Poland, Monika Cicolella is a self-taught Artist, who has been living in Europe and in Asia for the last 25 years. Graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with an MA in Political Sciences and Economics, she followed a rich academic path that led her from Warsaw to Luzern, Berlin, Paris and London, where she started to study Art History on her own. After a few years working for different international companies in Paris, she settled in 2012 in Shanghai. There, she decided to learn Chinese ink painting and to devote herself entirely to her passion for Art. She exhibited her first series in 2013 through several individual and collective exhibitions in China, followed by various Art projects and exhibitions in the UK (2017) and in France (2020). In parallel, her extensive travelling in Asia, in Australia, in the USA and in South America enabled her to discover different cultures and original forms of expression from Nature, which continue until now to nurture her artistic approach and her work about connections. She now lives and works in Lyon, France.

Born in 1977 in Poland, Monika Cicolella is a self-taught Artist, who has been living in Europe and in Asia for the last 25 years. Graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics with an MA in Political Sciences and Economics, she followed a rich academic path that led her from Warsaw to Luzern, Berlin, Paris and London, where she started to study Art History on her own. After a few years working for different international companies in Paris, she settled in 2012 in Shanghai. There, she decided to learn Chinese ink painting and to devote herself entirely to her passion for Art. She exhibited her first series in 2013 through several individual and collective exhibitions in China, followed by various Art projects and exhibitions in the UK (2017) and in France (2020). In parallel, her extensive travelling in Asia, in Australia, in the USA and in South America enabled her to discover different cultures and original forms of expression from Nature, which continue until now to nurture her artistic approach and her work about connections. She now lives and works in Lyon, France.

I am a contemporary artist exploring the different connections and interconnections that we can establish as an individual with the world that surrounds us. My purpose is to transform the energy and the emotions that I gather into aesthetic and poetic artworks that invite everyone to think about their own connections.

In my work, I mix the spontaneity and gesture of Chinese traditional ink painting with Western influences, using powerful colors, elaborated compositions and subtle references to European masters such as Chagall, Dufy, Miró and de Staël.

I was also influenced very early on by the dreams of the Polish linguist Zamenhof - the creator of Esperanto - and I consider Art and Nature as two universal languages that everyone can understand without any translation. This is why I very often use trees, whose patterns and symbols are present in most cultures across the globe, as a vector of energy and emotions. Indeed, in order to stay connected to Nature, I use as much as possible in my art practice materials and tools of natural origin such as ink, paper, wood, charcoal, ceramic and natural pigments.

I am a contemporary artist exploring the different connections and interconnections that we can establish as an individual with the world that surrounds us. My purpose is to transform the energy and the emotions that I gather into aesthetic and poetic artworks that invite everyone to think about their own connections.

In my work, I mix the spontaneity and gesture of Chinese traditional ink painting with Western influences, using powerful colors, elaborated compositions and subtle references to European masters such as Chagall, Dufy, Miró and de Staël.

I was also influenced very early on by the dreams of the Polish linguist Zamenhof - the creator of Esperanto - and I consider Art and Nature as two universal languages that everyone can understand without any translation. This is why I very often use trees, whose patterns and symbols are present in most cultures across the globe, as a vector of energy and emotions. Indeed, in order to stay connected to Nature, I use as much as possible in my art practice materials and tools of natural origin such as ink, paper, wood, charcoal, ceramic and natural pigments.