Biography
I earned a four years academic degree with honours in Painting and Decoration at the Fine Art Academy of Bologna (1991-’95) discussing the following dissertation: Romantic art as a new feeling of nature: Caspar David Friedrich. Then got another honours degree in a two years specialization in Communication and art teaching, at the same Academy (2008-’10), discussing the dissertation: Dwellings and seasons.
I attended in-depth courses of art history and artistic techniques, cinematography, music, philosophy, classical languages and civilizations, proofreading and editing.
I have been teaching art (drawing and art history) in junior high schools and I am currently holding art workshops in schools.
I draw and paint with both hands and I make portraits by request too.
My activity in the painting field is marked by solo exhibitions (Forlì, Faenza, Ravenna, Bertinoro, Firenze), collective exhibitions (Ravenna, Faenza, Arezzo, Salisburgo, Forlì, Roma, Venezia, Rieti, Lignano Sabbiadoro) and various cultural events.
I was commissioned to paint the altar piece dedicated to the Virgin Mary The light sprinkler now held in Macerata.
My works can be found in private collections in Italy and abroad (Ulm), at the White Cross Institute of Macerata, at the Franciscan art gallery of Falconara Marittima and in Rome; the same works appear in the cover and internal leaflet of the CD Time to Rise by the local band H. and some of them belong to the actress Rossella Falk and to the singers and songwriters Angelo Branduardi, Luca Barbarossa, Scarlett Wollwnmann and Alberto Solfrini.
The image of Forlì diocesan poster for the Great Jubilee of 2000 in Rome is mine. In 2001 I illustrated the fairy tale The faithful Sultan belonging to the collection I tell fairy tales, loads of fairy tales …-do we still need fairy tales for our children? edited by O. Bartolini.
Between 2005 and 2009 I held solo exhibitions within the Sedicicorto International Film Festival of Forli, celebrating the selected cinematographic personality. In 2011 I participated in some collective exhibitions organized by Sedicicorto IFFF.
In recent years, possibly every year, I visit Venice for a few days trip of vacation, visit and study.
BRIEF EXCERPTS OF CRITICISM
«A wonderful and developing painting spirituality.»
«… The artist, sensitive to Munch's painting, Nolde’s painting and to the one of the protagonists of the movement "Die Brucke", pervades her creations with expressionist accents, not to mention impressionist hints and symbolist connotations. However it is in the romantic field that Ms. Montanari unfolds her most creative side, ... her landscapes are depicted in the light of the different moments of the day and through the different colour effects of the seasons, as a metaphor of the different ages of man ... a personal elaboration of the language of the unconscious and of the anguish generated by the flow of time... an agonizing tension towards the mysterious values of a world beyond, according to an evocative and modern Nordic sensitivity. ... Montanari’s art is capable of attaining solutions full of interesting contents.»
«… Her frequent and often surreal night scenes, dig into the anguish of an introspection that, being submerged in a dark obsession, with a strong sense of urgency is longing for the enlightening glow of knowledge. Also her restless sea scenes, in the explosive power of waves splashing on the rocks, metaphorically represent the existential agony that can fade away just inside the blinding infinity of a stormy horizon or of a sky torn by atmospheric lacerations. … And when faith anxiety seems to offer salvation through redemption to human beings, sometimes the severity of a bare tree, or of a rocky chasm, or of a frightful wave appear to show the extreme fragility of the earthly journey of mankind»
(E. Dall’Ara, critic and curator-FO)
«What characterises Daniela Montanari, from her first and shy appearances in the artistic scene of Forlì, is, with no doubts, consistency. The painter’s images are instantly recognizable. Daniela's paintings involve the viewer and leave their mark.
The secret charm of Daniela Montanari’s painting is that you will never know – and this makes it even more intriguing- whether the night is attacking, or is being attacked by, the last light of the day.»
(R. Ricci, critic-FO)
«Excellent! An expert in drawing, and in the use of colour. She creates original works full of spirituality»
«... fully appreciate the gradualness with which colour is worked and "stretched out", in order to suggest the lightness of immateriality.»
«Also Daniela Montanari, from Forlì, refined her skills at the Academy of Bologna and stands out both for the quality of her painting and for the excellence of her sign, as you will discover on the beautiful displayed drawings. Her artistic representation, always pushed to the limits of the supernatural, becomes more and more indistinct and eventually reaches a de-materialisation of reality where solidness becomes liquid in an exciting burst of spirituality ...»
(O. Gelosi, critic-FO)
« … The romantic ancestry of a sensitivity like hers is clear and obvious.... with an originality, however, with a commitment to introspection and to the definition of intrinsic motivations, with an accuracy for formal and technical research, which cannot but be admired.»
«… With a serene, but clear, and definite awareness of herself and her work, which is one of her main features, Daniela Montanari explains the principles leading her artistic activity ... The very young age of the artist, the self-consciousness which characterizes her research, the commitment with which she conducts both aesthetics and technical investigations, the results she achieved and, last but not least, her resolute and determined disposition are a guarantee of future, important outcomes.»
(F. Bugani, already responsible for Gaddi Museum in Forlì)
«What strikes most looking at Daniela’s works is a strong passion, visible in her extreme landscapes, in the clouds charged with movement which express intense vitality as if they were grabbed by cosmic forces...»
(M. Machella, professor of perception at the Academies of fine arts-Macerata, AN)
«... Her skies are full of clouds and the atmosphere envelops stylized human silhouettes ... all with a sense of introspection, with an hint of ... meditation ...»
(S. Costa, mosaic artist -RA)
«… Daniela faces painting as a pure vortex of light and shadows with no points of reference... She made the most of her choice to confront imaginary painters… authors of a journey that has neither points of departure nor arrival. I am sure that today Daniela is aware of such a sublime roaming, and that she will always be able to keep making inside herself that journey, which is rooted in the purely aesthetic wind of painting ...»
(R. Cresti, Professor, essayist and translator-BO)
«Daniela is a very young painter, but she already masters great technical skills ...she challenges the limits imposed by painting ... to express notions of deep spirituality ...
Daniela’s landscapes are physically recognizable; in fact they are the result of her imagination, places of contemplation ...A symbolic painter, therefore, fully aware of her creative function, Daniela invites us to rediscover the essential, the primary link between heaven and earth, to raise again from earthly anxieties...»
(C. Leoni, critic, Firenze)
«(During her meeting with high school students) the artist touched with mastery and poetry on interesting topics, such as the pursuit of Truth through painting ...»
(Q. Cappelli and M. Skuly, critics-FO)
«... the Three ages of man ... puts on the paper a graphic virtuosity investigating human looks and skins and connotes them in a masterly manner; or the twisted hands of another impressive graphic work, "Bonds", a pencil on paper that shows the painter’s great skills in the use of graphic signs ...»
(S. Arfelli, critic and curator-FO)
"... Daniela Montanari in the landscape it is stated as "place of the heart" of the dream, of the unknowable ... The principle of moving from life, but to follow then only the inner life, this is the thread that unites the works of our artist ... in which the decadent elegance is combined with the analysis of the Essence. "
(F. Pasini, critic and curator-FO)
