BIOGRAPHY
Fernanda Rodante was born
on the 27th of September 1975
in São Paulo, Brazil.
She began to paint at the age of 21,
during the psychology university.
In the same month she graduated,
she held her first individual exhibition.
The success of that exhibition changed her destiny forever.
After a year of solitary painting,
she sought out her first teacher,
the Argentine João Carlos Pensa,
with whom she studied for three years
and deepened her knowledge of realistic painting.
Her second teacher was Jorge Branco,
with whom she studied for a year
and deepened her knowledge of expressionist art.
The third teacher, with whom she studied for two years,
was Chen Kong FANG, a Chinese grandmaster based in Brazil.
With him Fernanda found her brushstroke, her painting style
that accompanies her to this day.
According to Chen Kong FANG:
“Fernanda Rodante is one of the most authentic artists of the new generation in Brazil, as she has a constant doctrine, a unique imagination and an unusual talent.
Always firm in her language, she presents a serenity in her works that is essential for these troubled times.”
According to Emanuel von Lauenstein Massarani:
"Without renouncing figurative and drawing principles, Fernanda Rodante's painting opens up to a broad sense of breath, not only in terms of conception but also in the richness of light, the layering of colors, the plasticity of rhythm, and above all, a completely modern skill in compositions and overlays. The material in her works contributes to the overall effect, giving the whole a particular value. They are landscapes, figures, and still lifes where color, blended into the material, also achieves intense and precious gradients."
EXHIBITIONS
She held ten solo exhibitions.
Of these, stand out:
"From Stage to Canvas",
Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, 2012
"Flag Exhibition" (Exposição Bandeiras)
Conjunto Nacional Cultural Space, São Paulo, Brazil, 2009
"Winds"
My Guest Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil, 2002
Fernanda participated in numerous group exhibitions,
among them, stand out:
"Montreux Art Gallery", Switzerland, 2012
"Artbox Project", Zürich, 2019
"ArtCircle", Slovenia, 2022
"Reaching Beyond", Poland, 2023
Fernanda also contributed to the film "Dreams"
by Walther Neto, with her drawings,
which received an award at Cannes in 2023
7th Art Award, Canes, France.
Stop motion Mother Mutter, 2024
7th Art Award, Canes, France
The Painter, by Walther Neto
MEANING
Art has its noblest purpose in inspiring and uplifting the human soul.
For me, painting is celebrating life, it is recording my passage through this peculiar planet,
in a search for conscience and in defense of vulnerable beings.
In Fernanda Rodante’s paintings, life drifts gently—like a breeze that plays with kites and pinwheels in the sky.
Everything dances: ballerinas spin endlessly in forgotten music boxes, clowns search for balance on imaginary unicycles, musicians gather to play melodies woven from silence and color.
It is within this whimsical universe that the artist leads the gaze, stitching together memory and poetry.
Toys are not mere objects—they are portals to a childhood beauty that endures, even as the world grows too vast. Carousels spin like time itself, not out of urgency, but for the pure joy of motion.
Among market stalls and colorful crowds, fragments of everyday life emerge, charged with tenderness: people, prizes, gatherings. There is always a celebration about to begin—or the sweet longing for one already past.
This fascination with the collective reveals itself in her love for painting traditional festivals—especially the Feast of Saint Benedict in the Paraíba Valley, in Aparecida, where faith, music, and tradition transform into color and gesture upon the canvas.
Animals watch it all unfold. Birds, freed from cages, observe humans as they float through the skies. Other times, they take our place: they sail, they wander, they dream, they live. Cats, ducks, horses… silent characters in a fable where anything is possible.
Even in still lifes, life insists on blooming: trees grow from vases, breaking free from confinement, surpassing the expected.
And among all the places her palette touches, one holds a special space: Campos do Jordão—a city that lives in her story with warmth and memory, appearing now and then like a whisper in the mist, a home in the mountains, a recollection lit by the glow of sunset.
Fernanda Rodante’s work inhabits the space between the real and the imagined—between breath and dream. For her, painting is a way to let the invisible breathe.
THEMES
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