Daina Dagnija was born in Riga, Latvia. In October of 1944 her family fled the second Soviet occupation. Six years in displaced persons' camps educated her in Latvian language and patriotism for her native land. In 1951, her family immigrated to USA - Detroit, Michigan. When in high-school, Dagnija attended Saturday painting classes at the Detroit Art Institute. There she was most impressed by an El Greco painting, also Bruegel’s “Wedding Dance”.

In the fall of 1954 she went to New York to study painting at the
Art Students’ League. Next year she won a merit scholarship for the painting "Immigrant boy" (her young brother’s Ukrainian friend). (Photo on the right) Then she returned to her family and studied at The Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit.

In 1959 Dagnija went to Los Angeles, where she studied at the Chouinard Institute (Cal Arts) and became a committed abstract expressionist. On the last day of 1960 she married a young Latvian, drafted in the US army, who was being sent to Okinawa. Some months later, she joined him there. Living in an Okinawan village, she was fascinated by the local scene, and started to develop her personal figurative style, based on the abstraction that she was so committed to.

Education:

1959-1960 Chouinard Institute (”Cal Arts”), Los Angeles, CA

1956-1959 Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit, Mich

1954-1956 Art Students League, New York, NY (Merit Scholarship)

Awards and recognitions

2009 Cité Internationale des Arts residency, Paris, France

2005 Latvian Artists Association’s nomination for Baltic Assembly Culture Award

1999-2001 Art in Embassies Program (AIEP), U.S. State Department

1997&1999  Fordham University, New York, course “Spirituality in Art”

1994 Marymount Manhattan College, NY, course “Gender Identity in Art”

1993 World Federation of Free Latvians, Cultural Foundation Visual Arts Award

1985 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship for Painting

1983 Summit Art Center - Juried Show ‘83 painting prize (Juror Vivien Raynor)

1980 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship for Painting

1978-79 CETA Project - painting murals at Bergen Pines Hospital, Paramus, NJ, U.S.A.

Selected solo exhibitions

2015 Rothko Center for the Arts, Daugavpils, Latvia, July - September

2015 Bauska Museum, Bauska, Latvia, 17 January - 11 March

2013 Apsida Gallery, Riga, Latvia

2012 Jurmala Museum, Jurmala, Latvia

2010 Ivonna Veiherte Gallery, Riga, Latvia

2009 The Museum of History of Riga and Navigation, Riga, Latvia

2007 Ivonna Veiherte Gallery, Riga, Latvia

2005 XO Gallery, Riga, Latvia

2004 Vilnius Rotuše - City Hall, Vilnius, Lithuania

2004 Latvian State Museum exhibition hall Arsenals, Riga, Latvia (Retrospective exhibition)

2003 The Museum of History of Riga and Navigation, Riga, Latvia

2003 Apsida Gallery of the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Riga, Latvia

2002 The Museum of Foreign Art, Riga, Latvia (“America, 60’s and 70’s”)

2002 Gallery “Daugava”, Riga, Latvia

2002 The Museum of History and Art, Cesis, Latvia

2001 Ivonna Veiherte Gallery, Riga, Latvia

2000 Cicada Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA

1995 Latvian National State Museum exhibition hall Arsenals, Riga, Latvia

1989 Williams Center for the Art, Rutherford, NJ, USA

1987 Center Gallery, Demarest, NJ, USA

1984 Barron Arts Center, Woodbridge, NJ, USA

1983 Foyer George Washington, Rabat, Morocco

1982 Queens College Arts Center, New York, NY, USA

1977 Bergen Museum of Art and Science, Paramus, NJ, USA

1971 Herbert Benevy Gallery, New York, NY, USA

1968 Detroit International Institute, Detroit, Mich, USA

Selected group exhibitions

2011 Prague National Art Gallery, Czech Republic, “Spiritual Practices”

2011 Latvian State Museum exhibition hall Arsenals, “Spiritual Practices”

2010 Latvian State Museum exhibition hall Arsenals, “Golden Works”

2009 “ART VILNIUS ‘09” International Contemporary Art Fair

Work has, also, been shown in countless group exhibitions, among them at

P.S.1 Institute of Contemporary Art, New York;  The Newark Museum, NJ;

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ;  City Without Walls gallery, Newark, NJ;

Frank J. Miele gallery, New York;  Stables Gallery, Taos, NM;  also Womens Caucus on Art exhibitions (New York) - “Artist and the Spiritual Quest”,  “Painters Puzzle Project”, and others

In 2001 she returned to Latvia

Fragments from http://www.dagnija.com/biographical-notes.html