Daniela Colonna

BIOGRAPHY

Daniela Colonna is a painter whose research explores identity in its most intimate and changeable dimension: who we are, what we show, and what remains hidden.

Her figurative painting, rooted in symbolism and a visionary imagination, arises from the encounter between reality and the dream world. Through the face, the body and the female figure, Colonna explores memory, transformation, vulnerability and self-perception. Natural and symbolic elements such as flowers, leaves, roots, flames, water and the moon become presences through which the inner world takes shape.

In her most recent works, the figure gradually fragments: the face dissolves into vertical brushstrokes, fragments of color and structures that evoke digital perception. Painting becomes an unstable surface, suspended between presence and dissolution, between the image we show to others and the one we recognize within ourselves. Her interest goes beyond the simple representation of a face: she aims to transform it into a psychological space in which memory, emotion and identity can emerge, fragment and recompose themselves.

This research has given rise to her current project, "Identitas – Between Reflection and Recognition", dedicated to the many forms of i...

TRAINING AND BACKGROUND
I have always loved painting. Since childhood, drawing and painting have been my way of listening to the world and answering it. I never stopped, and my work was noticed long before I began any formal artistic training. For me, painting is a language older than words — the one I trust when words fall short. Where words stop, color, light and shadow begin to speak, giving shape to what I feel and to what I cannot yet name.
My paintings come to me like visions, often like night visions. Painting is, for me, more necessary than the air I breathe. When I stand before the canvas, I experience a kind of detachment from everything else, as if the world around me were to fall away and I were carried into a parallel universe. This intimate and instinctive relationship with painting has always been at the heart of my artistic journey.
In 2000, I began my painting studies in Caserta, in a traditional art workshop, under the guidance of a master, where I received a classical training. I later trained as a jewelry designer at the «Il Tarì» association in Marcianise, an experience that further refined my sensitivity to composition, form, proportion and aesthetics.
My artistic training continued through direct experience i...

EXHIBITIONS AND RECOGNITION – SELECTED

Since 2006, Daniela Colonna has exhibited in galleries, cultural institutions, museums, and historic venues throughout Italy.

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

- Capua – Church of San Salvatore a Corte, two-person exhibition with Maestro Delugan (2024)
- Naples – Dedalus Art Culture (2023)
- Procida – Church of Santa Margherita Nuova (2023)
- Caserta – Caserta Nova Gallery, "Anima, Luci e Ombre" (2023)
- Caserta – Salotto Dadaista (2023)
- Ischia – Salotto Dadaista (2020)
- Rome – Area Contesa Arte Gallery, Via Margutta (2018)
- Caserta – Che Banca! (2009)

Group Exhibitions and Institutional Venues

- Rome and Lazio – Premio Arte Capitale, Palazzo Colonna, Rome (2024); "Mythos", Center for Art and Culture, Ladispoli (2023)
- Naples and Campania – PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli (2023); Castel dell’Ovo; BMT – Mostra d’Oltremare; Casina Vanvitelliana, Bacoli; Real Sito di Carditello; Castello d’Alagno, Somma Vesuviana; Crypt of St. Francis of Paola, Caserta
- Ischia – Ischia Film Festival – Selected Artist (2026). Selected to participate in the Ischia Film Festival 2026 with an artwork presented as part of the festival's artistic programme.
- Museums and Historic Venues – Calatia Archaeologica...