I was born in Turin, earned my degree in humanities in Pisa, and live in Florence.
Today, I devote most of my energies to making art, maintaining, however, continuity with my work in publishing, which I have been doing for a long time.
For publishing houses in Italy and abroad (France, Japan, Greece, Iran, Spain, and Switzerland), I have published books of which I am also the illustrator and, often, also the author and, in certain cases, even the designer of a series. Alternating my work in publishing for adults with that for children and the game sector, I have worked for Città Nuova, Clementoni, Electa/Mondadori, EL, Emme edizioni, Franco Cosimo Panini, Fatatrac, Giunti, La Nuova Italia, La Repubblica, Le Lettere, Longanese periodici, Piccoli, Principi & Princìpi, Sillabe.
For public institutions, such as the Comune di Firenze and the Regione Toscana, I designed and illustrated publications and set up a toy library.
Personal exhibitions
1988 “Animali compassati” a cura della provincia di Pavia.
2003 “Piccolo trattato di zoologia immaginaria” nell’ambito del progetto MeyerArt, Ospedale pediatrico Meyer di Firenze.
2005 Una mia opera “Vitellina di Bue Mischiato” dopo la partecipazione alla Cow Parade entra a far parte della collezione permanente del Meyer.
2011 “Scimmie, Umani ed altri animali”, Salannunziata Imola, a cura del comune di Imola.
2011 “Compasses Zoo” Sede della ditta Staedtler, Norimberga.
2013 “Il libro disegnato. Bozzetti e illustrazioni di Daniele Nannini” Biblioteca Comunale Empoli, a cura del comune di Empoli.
2013 “Hamlet in the jungle” installazione sitespecific, vetrina di Sensus, Fiesole, Italia, cura di Claudio Cosma.
2014 “Installazioni Animalesche” Ex convento di SanT’Orsola, Firenze, a cura di Goffredo Serrini.
2015 “Ritratti Animali” Maidoff Gallery, Firenze, a cura di Naomi Muirhead.
2019 “Animali con Passato” Circolo La Montanina, Fiesole, a cura di Piero Forosetti.
Awards
In 1988, I won the “Andersen Prize” as the best Italian illustrator for my book, Animali Compassati. The series it generated gave rise to the interactive and educational web site, compasses-zoo.net.
In 1992, the children’s jury of the “Rodari Prize” awarded second prize to my book, Gira e Scopri le Strisce.
In recent years – with a growing interest, on one hand, in what for me were new techniques of expression and, on the other, in a more adult usership of my work – I began to devote myself to painting and sculpture.
In this new activity, I chose an eclectic approach that, moreover, corresponds to my character: a few works are allusive, while others place the viewer before facts in their naked truth, while others are strong and dramatic, and others still, light and ironic.
They are held together – at least, so I hope – by a shared attitude. Without contradicting my once prevalent activity as an illustrator and children’s author, I pressed forward, from another perspective, to examine what has always been central to my work and that can be summed up in the analysis of the relationship between man and nature of which he is a part. An attempt to visualise human beings in a place that is no longer one of absolute privilege, of domination. A place where man no longer feels himself the god of the world.
I taught illustration at the SACI-Studio Art Center Italy of Florence from 1986 to 2000, and children’s illustration in a training course of the Regione Toscana in 1992. As an illustrator and author, I hold seminars and workshops in public structures, such as schools and libraries or in private structures such as bookstores. Here you have a mask used in a workshop.
Collective exhibitions
1982 Illustratori 1, Associazione Illustratori, Milano.
1984 Mostra degli illustratori selezionati, Fiera di Bologna.
1984 Children’s Book Illustrators Exhibition Tokio e Nishinomya.
1985 Illustratori 2 Associazione Illustratori, Milano.
1987 Biennale di Illustrazione di Bratislava.
1988 “Indovina chi viene a Siena?” Siena, cura Gualtiero Schiaffino.
1989 Mostra degli illustratori selezionati, Fiera di Bologna.
1989 Children’s Book Illustrators Exhibition Tokio e Nishinomya.
1990 Selected Illustrators Exhibition Prize Catalonia, Barcellona.
1990 “Creatività come lavoro”, Firenze 1990, cura Andrea Rauch.
1999 “Spettri, santi e streghe”, Genova, cura Gualtiero Schiaffino.
2000 “Matite italiane” Fiera del Libro per Ragazzi di Bologna.
2001 “L’una & un quarto”, Genova, cura Gualtiero Schiaffino.
2001 “L’immagine fa testo”, Montevarchi.
2002 “Parole colorate”, Padova, cura di Alfredo Stoppa.
2005 “Cow Parade” Firenze.
2005 “Sirenette di carta e soldatini di inchiostro” Roma, cura di Gualtiero Schiaffino.
2007 “I mille volti di Garibaldi”, Camogli, cura Gualtiero Schiaffino.
2009 “Segni di sogni”, Fornace Pasquinucci, Capraia Fiorentina.
2012 “10 anni di mostre per l’enoteca di Siena”, Roma.
2012 “Racconti a colori”, Lucca 2012.
2013 “Altari profani”, Spazio Sensus, Firenze, cura di Claudio Cosma.
2019 “Leonvolo” Fiesole, cura di Piero Forosetti.
2022 “Giardino Zoo Logico” Firenze, cura di Sergio Tossi.
