About Daria Startseva

I am a contemporary artist living and working in Zurich. My practice moves between figurative reduction and poetic abstraction. I focus on fleeting moments and atmospheric depth, on resonance and the subtle space between thought and sensation.

Originally trained in graphic design and illustration, I studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and spent over a decade working as an art director and designer across publishing, advertising and digital media. The years in visual design sharpened my sensitivity to rhythm, balance and color. In painting, this precision softens, allowing it to breathe, while intuition guides the composition.

Painting is at the core of my practice. While I occasionally explore other media, my work remains rooted in color, composition and rhythm. It carries a calm clarity, a quiet strength grounded in depth and resonance.

What interests me most is emotion over narrative. The trace of gesture, the subtle conversation between forms, the honesty of imperfection. The marks remain visible, carrying the energy of their making and the presence of the human hand. The work remains open, grounded and alive.

My work explores presence the quiet moment in which light, color and gesture begin to breathe. I am drawn to the subtle atmosphere between forms, where emotion emerges without insistence. Through rhythm and restraint, I create paintings that carry a calm, grounded intensity works that shape a space gently, allowing stillness and depth to unfold.