Rodrigo Godá

Rodrigo Alves Borges, whose artistic name is Rodrigo Godá, was born on 16 January 1980 in Goiânia, capital of the state of Goiás, in the central part of Brazil. Goiânia is considered by specialised Brazilian critics to be a cradle of contemporary artists.

From an early age, Godá made drawings and paintings. In his relatives’ carpentry shop, he learnt about working with wood and made toys from wood and ceramics.

The elements of Nature as recurring scenarios

His birthplace allows him to frequent environments with forests, animals and waterfalls, and his interest in nature and ecology becomes a recurring theme in his work.

He devours the art books that come into his hands and attends folk fairs taking an interest in folk art and indigenous crafts.

Attends Hip-Hop and Graffiti meetings in the city’s suburbs.

From the age of 17, Rodrigo Godá began attending art workshops at the Federal Technical Center where he met artist and teacher Rosângela Imolesi. She supports him and allows him to get to know Ouro Preto, in the state of Minas Gerais, a UNESCO World Heritage city founded in the 18th century and characterized by the Baroque style of the Brazilian Gold Rush, and its traditional Winter Festival, an event based in this city that brings together different contemporary artistic languages. This is the first time the artist has left Goiás.

A South American journey and an encounter with Gilberto Chateaubriand

He attended ateliers and admired several artists in Goiânia, including the naïf painter Waldomiro de Deus, Siron Franco, and Antonio Poteiro, all distinguished international figures. During this period, he won the “Revelation” award at the National Art Naïff Biennial in Piracicaba, São Paulo state.

At the age of 20, he had his first solo exhibition at the Confaloni Gallery of the Secretariat of Culture in Goiás. Soon after, he was selected in the Prima Obra Project by Fundação Nacional de Arte, Ministry of Culture; then, he began participating in a series of selections and receiving invitations to art events.

He met collector Gilberto Chateaubriand, the largest collector of Brazilian art, who acquired many of his works and followed his path.

He participated in several group and individual exhibitions in the most important museums, galleries and art fairs in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, as well as in several capitals in Brazil, and some international ones, in Cuba and Chile.

He joins the collections of various collectors and museums, and is the subject of texts produced by renowned critics.

Prominent among his awards is the one he received at the National Art Salon XIII of the State of Bahia, in the capital city of Salvador, which is Brazil’s most important event; he is the figurative artist honored in the 2016 edition of the Festival Internacional de Cinema e Video Ambiental (FICA), which has been held for 19 years in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Goiás.

He maintains the atelier in Goiânia and in Pirenópolis, a colonial and tourist city in Goiás.

There, his large native wood atelier is surrounded by mountains and waterfalls, a place of Brazilian cerrado vegetation and wildlife, where the artist produces his nature-soaked works.

Between Brazilian Surrealism and Pop Art

He works with various techniques from drawing to painting with the characters of Brazilian surrealism (drawing, painting, oil painting, watercolour, pastels), in an almost chaotic organization.

Areas of intense colour making room for depicted elements.