Daniele Cazzola

About artist

Daniele Cazzola was born in Pavia, where since he was a child he has shown a strong aptitude for drawing.

After secondary school, he attended the Art Institute "B. Cellini" in Valenza and there he learned the art of chiseling and the importance of precision. During the five years of high school, he was fascinated by the paintings of the Hungarian painter and graphic artist Victor Vasarely, and created several works that refer to Op Art - in tempera, on cardboard, inspired by mathematics and geometry of forms to create a two-dimensional illusion of movement, developing almost an obsession for perfection. Daniele Cazzola graduated in 1973. It was then in the following years that he experimented further, various techniques: pencil, charcoal, oil, watercolor, acrylic for both figurative and landscape traditional boards. Since 1977 he has been working as a goldsmith, with a store and laboratory that, since 1980, has its permanent seat in Voghera. In 1995 the multifaceted artist decided to devote himself to another of his passions: the history of the American Indians, and he combined it with his love for art, so much so that in this way the project was born to return by hand the original colors to the ancient black and white photographs of the great Indian leaders. This was the beginning of a successful collaboration with the Rusconi publishing house, and through this synergy in 1999 the beautiful illustrated book entitled "80 Ritratti di Capi Indiani" came to light. Still today to cultivate this historical interest, he writes and colors, and has become a well-known collector of period photos, artifacts, volumes and much more inherent to the people of the Indians of America. Moved by so much passion he made three trips to the U.S.A., visiting several Indian reserves. In recent years he has also painted in oil different landscapes and Native Americans. Among various artistic and working collaborations Cazzola since 2014 works with the architect Fabio Rotella, grandson of the famous artist Mimmo Rotella (a figure linked to the artistic movement of Nouveau Réalisme and International Pop Art), the creation of artistic jewelry for Murano Luxury Glass and has exhibited in Paris his prestigious collection of animals in precious glass. Among the many exhibitions, in 2018, there was an important and long stay in the Castello Visconteo in Voghera: rooms completely set up with its vast artistic, photographic and filmographic collections, as well as authentic handcrafted objects from the many times mentioned American Indians - which is why the cultural association Hunkapi of Genoa was involved. Since 2017 Daniele Cazzola feels the need for a new artistic research, which goes beyond the conventional but without giving up anything learned in the past years. He is attracted by the strong contrasts of colors, shapes and surfaces, and goes from the rough to the extremely polished always looking for a three-dimensional effect. It is almost impossible to define the technique used today because it is so varied that it even appears wonderfully indefinable. For the artist, in fact, there must be no limits of expression and material to be provided. Evident as his work is certainly material, and he begins with the construction of the support itself. He combines painting and sculpture, inevitably influenced by the painstaking goldsmithing activity carried out for half a century. Today Daniele is particularly attentive and inspired by the concrete and daily problems and discomforts of the human soul, claiming that the care is the Sovereign Nature that surrounds any creature. Nature that "can wrap or strangle". "Beyond", the title of his first work that starts the said thread, and that Cazzola claims to be <<a sign of a new beginning and at the same time a visual autobiography of my past life. I begin this new adventure with a lot of enthusiasm, the same enthusiasm that has characterized many phases of my existence, with a renewed and equal spirit of sharing to involve all the people who will see my work. Mine aims to be a totally free expression. (...)>>. In 2019 Daniele wins the first prize at an exhibition in Milan in honor of the famous astrophysicist Margherita Hack and participates in the Milan Biennale, identifying his thought on art with that of the singer Augusto Daolio of the musical group Nomadi or <<I do not paint to fill a void but to empty a full that is inside me and presses>>.