Emanuele Dascanio

Indisputably the most accomplished graphite artist in the world, Emanuele views his drawings as a symphony, where all the dots and lines interact to form an image and a message from the depth of his soul.

This Italian artist, who now works and lives in Belgrade after years in Berlin, regards himself as a “creator” who reads and writes, and dabbles in music and painting, which all feeds into his greatest passion and talent: graphite drawing, an art form in which we think he is literally second to none.

Inquisitive and curious like a child (but with a wisdom beyond his age), Emanuele never tires of studying and trying out new techniques. Yet, he is laser-focused on drawing in charcoal and graphite on paper, his media of choice.

From his apprentice days in the Bergamo studio of Gianluca Corona until this day, he has clocked up over 50,000 hours perfecting his art—and perfect it is: arresting black-and-white portraits with intensely speaking eyes and the occasional full-colour still life with an unexpected power to enthral the viewer.

Even though his hyper-realist works require almost medieval amounts of painstaking labor (upward of 700 hours a piece is no exception), they have a decidedly contemporary feel: his subjects are often wise men or pensive women that you may encounter in the street, in the forest—or in your dreams for that matter, because they tend to have a whiff of magic and mystery about them.

In 2018, Emanuele co-hosted a four-day workshop with tattoo legend Max Ghostar, where he taught hyper-realistic drawing to the world’s finest tattoo artists.

It is through unconventional collaborations like this—plus his research and introspection—that Emanuele’s personal style keeps evolving and in the process redefining what graphite and charcoal drawing represents today.

Emanuele’s art is slowly and intensely made and is best savored in the same way.