Five artists, one icon: the Canasta through the lens of art

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12 hours ago
2 min read

A Weekend with an Artist is Weekend Max Mara’s new special project for Spring/Summer 2026. The initiative kicked off with an exclusive two-day experience on February 3–4, bringing together international influencers and content creators and marking the official launch of the project.

The project celebrates creativity, freedom, and authentic visions, giving life to five unique trench coats, each expressing a distinct artistic language.

The campaign, shot by Petra Collins, presents these pieces as true wearable works of art.

Within this framework, five international female artists, selected by renowned art critic, curator, and writer Francesco Bonami, reinterpret the Canasta trench coat, transforming it into a canvas for personal expression.

Victoria Kosheleva A trench that becomes a stage. Victoria Kosheleva transforms the iconic trench coat into a theatrical piece to be worn, painting directly onto the prototype with dreamlike symbols such as eyes, vortices and flowers. The result is a dialogue between mask, dream and identity: not merely a garment, but an emotional experience blending art, mystery and imagination.

Paola Pivi

Light, colour and wonder. Inspired by the skies of Hawaii and their recurring double rainbows, Paola Pivi reimagines the trench as an explosion of positive energy. Vertical multicoloured bands shape the silhouette, inviting a new perspective on reality—where even the ordinary can become extraordinary.

Tschabalala Self Identity in transformation. Tschabalala Self dresses the trench in a soft pastel yellow, enriched with her iconic Infinity Flowers—symbols of fragile beauty and continuous change. Like a perennial flower that blooms year after year, the garment conveys the idea that transformation is always rooted in who we are, merging artisanal technique with a contemporary vision.

Tai Shani

Militancy, irony and the subversion of codes. Tai Shani envelops the trench in glossy black vinyl, playing with the imagery of clandestinity and femininity. Blending gothic, psychedelic elements and ironic hand-drawn kitten illustrations, the piece becomes a visual manifesto that unites political strength, vulnerability and utopian imagination.

Shafei Xia Calm on the surface, turmoil within. Emerging artist Shafei Xia combines provocation and poetry in a watercolour artwork that merges a female figure with a white tiger. The trench narrates the coexistence of opposing forces—delicacy and power, control and chaos—transforming into a powerful metaphor of inner identity.