10 Questions with Diletta Innocenti Fagni
Diletta Innocenti Fagni was born in Florence in 1988. She started studying art during high school and later decided to continue her studies in Rome. She graduated from the University of Rome in art, theater and film. She lives and works between Rome and Tuscany.
difpaints.com | @dilettaif
Diletta Innocenti Fagni portrait
ARTIST STATEMENT
Her work draws on mnemonic images and visual resources as starting points, looking for intimacy, emotions and identity, between present and past, real and unreal. She mostly paints portraits and bodies captured in private moments, seeking the evocative power of images and exploring relationships, psychologies, feelings, connected to memories and dreams.
Gli amanti, oil on canvas, 50x70 cm, 2020 © Diletta Innocenti Fagni
INTERVIEW
First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. What is your artistic background and how did you start experimenting with images?
I started playing with colors as a child. My parents and grandparents still have my first drawings hanging on the walls of the house! I am fortunate to have been born in Florence, a city of art and Renaissance, and it undoubtedly influenced me to start this path. I studied art, theater, literature, and dance. I believe that my studies can be glimpsed in my works: I paint bodies, faces, expressions, and feelings, telling moments and stories.
Why are you an artist, and when did you first become one?
An artist looks for beauty, emotion, harmony where others could neglect it, and the artist feels the need to tell it to the world. It has often happened that when people look at my works or buy one, they often give me moments of their life, confiding me what my painting reminds them or what emotions related to their life my paintings are able to arouse. And this is why I’m an artist. I became one when I realized that giving emotions was my emotion.
How would you define yourself as an artist?
I’m an eclectic artist without a specific label. I started working as an actress, dancer and then deepened my career as a painter. What interests me is art in total, my need to express myself.
Flourish, oil on canvas, 50x 60 cm, 2021
© Diletta Innocenti Fagni
Rebirth, oil on canvas, 50x60 cm, 2021
© Diletta Innocenti Fagni
Can you tell us about the process of creating your work?
I paint what I feel. Often what I need and what I miss, other times the feelings I have, to celebrate them.
What’s the essential element in your art?
Emotion.
What themes do you pursue?
I’m interested in people. I love investigating through their eyes, studying faces, and the harmony of bodies. I like to grasp psychologies, personalities, looking for identities, relationships, love. The human being is fascinating to me for his emotions, and what I do is capturing moments and transforming them into strokes of colors. My latest works, created during the Covid19 pandemic, represent the theme of hugs as a massage of hope and optimism to underline the importance of inter-human contact.
Touch me (detail), oil on canvas, 2021 © Diletta Innocenti Fagni
Do you have a role model that you’ve drawn inspiration from when creating your art?
Sometimes my works draw on mnemonic images and visual resources as starting points. Sometimes it is just my imagination.
Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promoting your work?
Of course, art fairs and exhibitions are essential for an artist to promote their art. In these pandemic years, culture has practically stopped. Art places, galleries, museums, cinemas, and theaters were closed, but digital exhibitions have allowed me to make myself known and make my works known to a vast audience.
With me, oil on canvas, 50x60 cm, 2021
© Diletta Innocenti Fagni
Touch me, oil on canvas, 120x80 cm, 2021
© Diletta Innocenti Fagni
What do you think about the art community and market?
I think the art market is constantly evolving, just as society and art are constantly evolving. The market must therefore respond to this change. The way of conceiving art has changed, and technology has made art more accessible. The Covid period has further accelerated this process, and the art communities have become a necessary channel for the promotion of an artist. The role of the artist also changed, and now his presence on social media is fundamental. Social media provides a chance for everyone worldwide to make artwork visible and represent an important opportunity for artists to be noticed based on talents.
Finally, any projects you are looking forward to for this year?
I would like to continue exploring the human being by creating a union with abstract elements, experiencing how the grace and strength of colors can arouse even more powerful emotions.
