--- title: Daniela Savarese description: Contemporary artist focused on figurative painting and portraiture url: 'https://www.artsume.com/a/daniela-savarese' type: artist createdAt: '2026-08-25' updatedAt: '2026-09-29' disciplines: - Painting - Drawing - Printmaking - Illustration location: 'Lisboa, Portugal' website: 'https://www.danielasavarese.com/' --- # Daniela Savarese *Contemporary artist focused on figurative painting and portraiture | Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, Illustration | Based in Lisboa, Portugal* ## Artist Statement I am a figurative painter, predominantly drawn to portraiture, taking reference from people I know and strangers alike. Individuals and their inner life hold a central role in my work. I find emotional depth in moments of physical stillness. While I am anchored to representing my subject as a real source, absolute accuracy doesn’t interest me and I welcome unpolished brush strokes and unfinished elements as visible traces of my process. I am fascinated by the secret intensity of neutral or subtle expressions; I hope to capture and deliver to the viewer´s interpretation the minute physical cues through which our mental and emotional processes peer outwards. Through my work, I strive to create a space for contemplation and empathy ## About Born in Italy and raised between Rome and New York, Daniela Savarese has lived and worked across Europe, including Spain, France, Portugal, and Germany. ## Curriculum Vitae ### Group Exhibitions - **2026** - *Woman*, Pouch Cove Foundation, Pouch Cove, Canada - **2026** - *Revealing the Human*, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London, United Kingdom - **2026** - Toxic Magic, Faro, Portugal - **2026** - *Transposition Transmutation 2026*, Baixo, Faro, Portugal - **2024** - *Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition*, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London, United Kingdom - **2024** - *Woman*, Pouch Cove Foundation, Pouch Cove, Canada - **2022** - *Arcana Nr. 4*, Feierwerk, Munich, Germany - **2021** - Stroke Art Fair, Munich, Germany ## Portfolio ### Visitors (2026) In this painting, I wanted to capture the gentle and tender connection between a daughter and her aging father. The presence of the cat introduces a quieter, more ambiguous element into the scene. As a visitor moving silently through the room, it evokes the fleeting nature of life and the quiet presence of something inevitable, reminding us that even the most intimate moments are touched by the passage of time. --- ### Space to cross (2026) *Oil on canvas* In this piece I intended to represent my sitter pondering—floating alone in a space of possibilities and choices, her ideas marinating and developing into something out anyone’s control but her own. --- ### Big sister (2026) This painting is titled ‘Big Sister’ and it’s about the shared history of siblings and the roles they take on towards each other and towards their parents. It’s about shifting planes and stuck matter and all the lives we live in family constellations. --- ### Lele (2026) I applied dense and sticky layers of paint to capture the weight of sleep --- ### Paul (2026) --- ### Self portrait (2026) --- ### Banishing spell (2026) Banishing spell is about removing someone from your life. I wanted to capture vulnerability and resolve in the same space. The struggle is part of the story, but not of the present. Her feet are grounded and legs are firm. Her eyes are pushing someone away. --- ### Bridal Party (2026) Set in a lagoon in Portugal, this painting depicts a scene of women bathing and gathering around a bride-to-be. The atmosphere is measured, sober, and closer to a ritual than a celebration. It is a rite of passage not just for an individual, but for a group; a chorus of women accompanying each other from one state of life into another. It is only fitting they chose to do so through water, anthropologically the element of transformation, purification, birth, death, and renewal across cultures. Immersed in the lapping currents of the lagoon, the entire group is initiated into a new social reality. --- ### Moni (2025) *Oil on canvas* --- ### Paul in Chair (2025) The woman in the portrait is Paola, my closest friend for over 30 years. We grew up together. We are the keepers of each other’s memories and the witnesses to each other’s stories. Even with this depth of connection, there are corners of ourselves that remain hidden. Through this piece, I aimed to convey that true connection isn’t about unraveling someone completely; it’s about cherishing both the known and the unknowable. --- ### Casalmare (2025) --- ### Isa (2025) My grandmother, Isa is being led by her caretaker, shuffling her feet across the dining room. She had a small frame, which became even smaller with age. I shrunk it further. I liked the idea that one has to get closer to see her—that seeing her is an act of will. Her expression is layered; it changes the nearer the viewer draws. The closer the view point the more intense the bewilderment. Isa had dementia, and her hand was deformed by a rare condition, never fully opening. She was not a tame woman, but she was tender to me. She never ‘accepted’ anything she didn’t like-least of all her aging. --- ### Blue hour song 6 (2026) *Charcoal on paper* --- ### Blue hour song 5 (2026) *Charcoal on paper* --- ### Blue hour song 4 (2026) *Charcoal on paper* --- ### Blue hour song 3 (2026) *Charcoal on paper* --- ### Blue hour song 2 (2026) --- ### Blue hour song (2026) *Charcoal on paper* --- ### Amina’s tea party (2024) Oil on canvas 50x60 ## Links - **Website:** https://www.danielasavarese.com/ - **instagram:** https://instagram.com/Dan_sav.art