biography
Daniela Barzaghi lives and works in Milan. In 1987 she graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. During the 1990s she won numerous awards dedicated to young artists and exhibited in prestigious Italian venues including Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, Galleria S.Fedele, and Museo della Permanente in Milan. Her paper works, which evoke stone and forms of possible archaeological resonance, have been exhibited in Italy and abroad. Around the 2000s she devoted herself to educational and social experiences through art workshops for adults and young people. At the same time, she continued her studio practice and research into simple and expressive materials, such as tangles of metallic wire that become "Inflorescences" or "Nests." Nature and the archetypal forms of the Human are a recurring thought in Daniela Barzaghi's works in the form of symbols, evocative signs, caskets, and slits that allude to and preserve organic remains and traces. Since 2010 she has been working on the ongoing series "Hives," small cells containing elements of nature and work. These works are square or cubic modules that can exist individually or assembled together to form paths and tracks ("Pavements"). Concurrently, driven by a narrative desire, a time-limited series of "graffiti" was born: relief panels where the paper material suggests the idea of ancient cave stories, recalling perennial human themes such as conflict and migration. With the triptych "Cum Panis" she took part in the "Not by Bread Alone" Project on the occasion of Expo 2015. She has exhibited in several group exhibitions dedicated to the Artist's Book at the Braidense National Library in Milan and other authoritative venues. Since 2014 she has participated and exhibited with the "Tornare@Itaca" Project, which develops across a series of group exhibitions between Northern and Southern Italy. In 2017 she organized a solo exhibition titled "We Are the Borders." In 2017 she won first prize at the IX Paper Triennial in Charmey (CH). In 2018 she participated in the Milano Scultura exhibition, and in 2019 some of her works were acquired by the Hui Zhao Collection at the Eachway Century Fashion Museum in Shenzhen. In 2022 she was invited to Haacht to exhibit during the Internationale Paperkunstbiennale, and in the same year one of her works was selected for the 5th International Paper Biennial in Beersheva. In 2023 she held a solo exhibition titled "Fragments and Witnesses" at the Michel Huynen Gallery in Verviers, Belgium, featuring some of her most significant works from the past decade. Following the COVID period, themes of Impermanence, Cyclic Change, and Memory—conceived as knowledge and a form of resistance—became central, bringing a period of solitude as well as meaningful inner reflection. Along with sculptures of bodies that evoke modern Guernicas, the artist continues her material research in "Landscape Bricks," infusing them with color and photography. She also recovers traditional painting techniques such as oil, pastel, and India ink, using them freely to reassemble old and new images, materials, artist proofs, drawings, photographs, and engravings—a sort of "stitching together of life pieces" in search of a common thread.
Critical texts by: Marina De Stasio, Francesco Tedeschi, Chiara Gatti, Michela Ongaretti, Valeria Vaccari.