| "Fine Art is that in which the hand, the head and the heart of man go together"
John Ruskin
Born and raised in Berlin, Germany (b. 1962), and currently living near Los Angeles, CA, Daggi is a self-taught award winning painter specializing in contemporary figurative realism and portraiture. She has reached the level of Eminent Pastelist of the International Association of Pastel Societies and Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America as well as Signature Membership in several pastel societies.
Working primarily in pastel and charcoal she pushes the more traditional boundaries of the medium by incorporating other materials and mediums into her work and presentation. Inspired by her dual cultural life she mixes realism with abstraction and personal narrative with social and political undercurrents.
Her work has been shown at the National Arts Club and the Salmagundi Club in NYC, the Butler Institute of American Art, OH, The Zhou B. Art Center in Chicago, The Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art and is in several permanent corporate collections as well as private collections, including The Bennett Collection, throughout the U.S. and Europe. Galleries that have shown her work include RJD Gallery in NY and Abend Gallery in CO. She has won numerous awards in national and international exhibitions. Her work has been published in many magazines and books, includingPoets and ArtistsMagazine,American Art Collector,Southwest Art,Professional ArtistMagazine,International ArtistMagazine,The Pastel JournalandPratique Des Artsin France.
In 2021 images of her work were selected for 'The Peregrine Collection' time capsule to be archived on The Moon via Astrobotic's Peregrine Mission One.
In 2004 she was one of 15 internationally selected artists to participate in the Atelier D'Artista, an International Art Symposium in Tuscany, Italy. In 2010 Daggi painted 31 portraits of children in an orphanage in Haiti as part of herMoni's Kidsnon-profit project using the proceeds to deliver aid to the children portrayed. In May of 2011 she was juried into the Pastel International Exhibition by Art du Pastel en France in Giverny, France. In 2016 she was among a select group of pastel artists from around the world who were invited to display their work alongside 40 Chinese artists during a year long traveling exhibition starting at the Ming Gallery in Suzhou, China. In October 2017 she was invited by the Italian Pastel SocietyPastellisti Italianito show her work as part of their first International Pastel Exhibition in Tivoli, Italy alongside artists from around the globe. Since 2012 she has been an Artist-in-Residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, CA, where she maintains her studio and has served on its board of directors.
Besides creating work for exhibitions and teaching workshops Daggi accepts portrait commissions throughout the year and has a long list of clients throughout the U.S, and Europe.
Artist Statement "Focusing mainly on portraying the human condition and our connection to each other my work begins with a visual trigger that evokes a strong emotional response in me or with an idea I want to explore. I like to create images that tell a story with multiple layers of meaning that draw in the viewer first with beauty and then allow them additional contemplation. Strong lighting and composition as well as social consciousness and relevance are important to my work. Women's and children's issues are of special interest to me so recently my work has dealt more and more with current social and political issues.
My medium of choice is pastel. I love the direct application, pure pigments and versatility of pastels. It allows me to apply it wet as well as dry and combine it with other media such as watercolor, inks, acrylic, metal leaf and charcoal. Pushing the traditional boundaries of pastel work I often experiment with texture and text, ranging from graffiti to precisely rendered font. The words may be inspired or even written by the subject portrayed.
I'm inspired by my growing up in the urban environment of Berlin, Germany, where contemporary abstract work is so prevalent but I also love traditional realism. My aim is to find my own way of combining the two and continue to try out new techniques, combining pastel with other mediums and presenting it in non-traditional ways. Living a dual cultured life has been a huge influence on my work." | 