About Fio

Fiorella Podesta | Biography 

Fiorella Podestá, known through her brand “Art by Fio,” is a Chilean born professional artist based in Florida since 2003. Her journey as an artist began at age 7 with pencil drawings, transitioning to oil painting at age 15. 

Following a glowing portfolio review and scholarship offer by the director of the Fine Arts & Architecture "Universidad Catolica de Chile", Fiorella was admitted to study Art with a grant at this prestigious University and eventually established her prominence in both group and solo art projects and exhibitions, including a solo exhibition at “The Causiño Palace'' a National Museum and Monument in the capital city of Santiago.  In the late 1990s Fiorella was the recipient of the Regional Fond Art grant, an initiative established and funded for the promotion of Chilean art and culture by the national government of Chile.

Invited in 2003 at the age of 33 to study art at the University of Florence, Italy, Fiorella Podesta traveling with her son and daughter, made a quick stop in the USA, Miami, and by the force of destiny she stayed in the USA and began her arts career painting, exhibiting and selling her artwork, opening an art gallery with a group of local artists in Wynwood. Exhibiting alongside Alex Grey at Moksha Art Collective in 2010, Fiorella’s artwork featured in gallery spaces, private events and public venues amidst the rapid growth of Art Basel and related satellite art fairs throughout the early 2000s.

In 2016 Fiorella was invited to paint her first large-scale mural for the Bushwick Collective’s Mana Wynwood international street art festival in Wynwood, Miami, and continued creating murals as a participant in Art Basel international street art events for the next 6 years and also continued to participate in art projects abroad, like in Chile were she alongside 13 other prestigious Chilean artists in a 2015 presented her artwork on a National Public Art event at the "Mapocho River" in Santiago, Chile with her painting “Canto al Agua” projected in light across the surface of the river.  Fiorella also won an arts grant in 2018 from the city of Aranda de Duero, Burgos, Spain and traveled to Europe to create a mural promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment on the façade of a 5 story building.

Fiorella Podesta currently lives and works in Palm Beach County, she continues creating her art, painting big scale murals and since 2020 also teaching art and photography to children of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County. 

Her work is held in a number of private collections and has been exhibited in both private and public cultural events across the USA, and in Canada, Spain, Australia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Her large-scale murals have been featured in private residences, schools, yoga studios, stores and building facades in major cities in the US, Canada, Spain, Brazil & Chile.  From the bustling streets of Wynwood to the tranquil shores of Spain, her murals serve as reminders of the power of art to inspire, provoke, and unite.

Fiorella Podestá's journey is a testament to the transformative power of creativity and the indomitable spirit of the human soul.