Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniela Kovacic.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Daniela. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a Chilean artist. I was raised in the southernmost town of the Chilean Patagonia. My dad is an architect but he painted at home since I can remember. So, I guess my relation to oil painting has something to do with that and with me painting over one of his precious madonnas at 5. I moved when I was 18 to the capital of Chile to study Visual Arts and my painting then was very different from now.
I was very moved by my late discovery of Lucian Freud that nothing could take me out of my studio or out of my obsession with painting. At the time, the field of painting at my school was not a big thing, but I was and still am way too obsessed with it to move in any other direction. After graduating I exhibited in different galleries but felt I needed better training, a formal one. So, I made my way to the New York Academy of Art thanks to Fulbright and a Chilean governmental scholarship. My career development in one art scene has been very interrupted by moving from one place to another.
After the 2 years in NY, I had to return to Patagonia, where I spent another three and a half years. Two of those years were dedicated to building an exhibit for the Visitors Center in the Straight of Magellan from scratch, a challenge that I do not regret but it did hold me back from being a full-time painter at the time. I am now in the US again, starting in the Chicago land area, where I am finally staying indefinitely.
This April 20th I will be in the Visions of Venus show, curated by Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, with many other artists at the Zhou B Art Center. It is open to everybody.
Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t think there is ever a smooth road for anybody, especially when creation is involved. To struggle is inherent to serious creative activities and probably necessary to evolve. My struggles with my career have to do with the feeling that it is never enough. That I don’t get to conquer my own work. However, I guess that if you ever feel satisfied, then that’s it. You are done. But, on the other hand, I really wish I will someday feel satisfied.
Luck, hard work, some talent and to be really stubborn are things you need when you pick the art path. I was really lucky at the begging of my career in Chile. When I had just graduated from college I was accepted into contests and received press and representation pretty fast. When I got to NY things slowed down a lot because all my energy was in pursuing my MFA. Since then it has been hard to go back to that momentum, but that its just how it goes, ups and downs.
To be an artist is to be constantly at the scrutiny of other people eyes. So, you are always at risk of rejection and that part never gets easy somehow. So far, there have been a lot of struggles along the way but I would not change art for anything else.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Painting story. Tell us more about the business.
I do realist oil paintings, usually of woman and children. Right now I am not represented by any galleries, I work as an independent artist. I am a sensible person, and I think that shows in my work. When I am able to impregnate some solemnity in unimportant things, that feels like a reward to me.
I would say that there is a kind of sobriety and silence in my work, a lack of flashiness. That “flashiness” being what is selling in realist figurative art right now. In that way, I am different to the trend.
Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?
I just aim to be better every time I start a new painting and learn from the successes and errors of the previous ones. I have no idea where will I be in 10 years, I can just keep on giving my every day to what I love. The next closest endeavor other than the Visions of Venus Show is a solo show that will take place this year on November 2nd at 1100 Florence in Evanston, IL.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.daniela-kovacic.com
- Instagram: kovacicart
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