"A portrait is something incredibly private, a coragious and complex gesture, when it looks at a third person, and not less audacious when it is -self portrait-.
It is necessary to know the subject who is portrayed, to the inmost recesses of his/her intimacy, or at least, to embody such intense observation, to the point where the artist dares to reproduce what she/he has learnt to see.(to the point where we dare to reproduce what we have learnt to see).
It is necessary to learn to look and to comprehend things about the subjects, that are sometimes unknown even to them.
It is necessary to perceive the truth in a face, in an attitude (posture), in a gesture.
Along this journey, the paintings by Serena Nono, have become, step by step, portaits.

After having initially layed her gaze on the delicate features of a female torso, a woman's back, after having discovered the transient glances of a face, first of all: her own, Serena Nono's interest for the human figure's complexity has grown so genuinely and exclusively to enable her to create real human figures."

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Agnes Kohlmeyer from Portraits, September 2002