Image via Complex Original
When graffiti spread south from New York in the '80s, the art form struck hard on the streets of São Paulo. In Brazil's largest city, hip-hop's wild style mixed with native forms of wall writing, known as pixação, inspiring a generation of artists who employ a bold, graphic sensibility against the burgeoning concrete backdrop of the metropolis.
The unique blend championed by Brazil's pioneers, and those who followed, has made Brazilian street art a cultural export almost on par with the Seleção brand of free-flowing soccer. While the artist duo known as Os Gemeos has become an art world household name, Brazil's street-born talents don't end with the famous twins. Across North America and Europe, the artist's represented here have spread the gospel of Brazil and proven to viewers around the world that São Paulo is among the most important hotbeds of global street art.
These are the 10 Brazilian Street Artists You Should Know.
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Location: São Paulo
Born Francisco Rodrigues da Silva, Nunca (which means "never" in Portugese) began painting the walls of hometown São Paulo at age 12. Since then, Nunca's progressed from crude gang slogans to fully realized murals that blend Western consumer culture with indigenous motifs. His work has been recognized internationally—in exhibitions at London's Tate Modern and São Paulo's Museum of Modern Art—and taken commissions from Nike.
Location: Goiania Se
If getting up is the primary concern of graffiti artists, Kboco can be considered Brazil's all-country king. Born in Goiania, in the Central-Western Region of Brazil, Kboco has covered walls throughout the nation. His work is most prevalent along the coast, particularly in the port cities of Olinda and Recife, where his signature figures and letters (drawing influence from African art, Mayan design, and native tradition) find form on relics of Brazil's colonial past. Of course, Kboco is no stranger to São Paulo either, showing studio work regularly in the metropolis.
Location: São Paulo
The husband-and-wife team of Jana (Jana Joana) and Vitche (Vincent Rodrigues) have been painting together for roughly 16 years. Their collective vision balances Vitche's pioneering Brazilian graffiti style with a studied consideration of broader Brazilian folk art. In their murals, clowns, harlequins, and birds pepper walls and produce whimsical narratives. Vitche has shown his work internationally at New York's Jonathan LeVine Gallery, and was featured in the 2006 film Bomb It.
Location: São Paulo
With his distinctive minimal figures, São Paulo-based Herbert Baglione strives to articulate the inner competitiveness in people. His take on humanity, often delivered with an ironic twist, is best represented by ghostly figures filling streets and pavements. Until 1997, Baglione painted under a street pseudonym, Cabal, which he symbolically announced dead in a series of outdoor interventions. Since then, Baglione's star has risen—as has his sense of how to relate his work to the environments he choses to paint.
Speto
Location: São Paulo
One of Brazil's true graffiti pioneers, Speto has been decorating walls in and beyond his native São Paulo for over four decades. He's influenced by native culture, specifically "Cordel literature," D.I.Y. books sold by street vendors. Honoring the inexpensive pamphlets, Speto's work playfully evokes classic woodcuts, and he also blends in hip-hop style graffiti, illustration, and tattoo motifs. Speto's aim is to create bold murals that are legible from distance. In that, his output is nearly unmistakable.
Location: São Paulo
Unlike the majority of her São Paulo peers, Fefe Talavera doesn't have firm roots in graffiti. After completing her studies in fine art, Talavera followed a traditional gallery path before deciding to join her more "underground" contemporaries and bringing her vision to the bustling canvas of Brazil's largest city. Talavera's favored subjects, colorful monsters influenced by her Mexican heritage, achieve a desire to explore core human emotions. Some of Talavera's coolest pieces interact with public advertisements. Since billboards were banned in the city, she's continued to employ lettering evocative of a passed era.
Location: São Paulo
Born in 1978, Alexandre Orion is a multimedia artist most famous for his "Ossario" project. Working in a exhaust-polluted tunnel underneath the streets of São Paulo, Orion created a 300-meter series of skulls by simply wiping away the grime. "Reverse graffiti" is not, however, his only trick. Orion is consumed with ways to challenge and transform the urban environment. He's turned factory smoke stacks into vertebrae columns, and he has also subverted traditional signage to explore the potential of written language. Off the streets, Orion's work has been shown at the Milwaukee Art Museum, New York's Museum of Art and Design, and the Fondation Cartier Pour L'Art Contemporain in Paris.
Finok
Location: São Paulo
At age 16, Raphael Sagarra, now in his late 20s, began noticing graffiti in his São Paulo neighborhood, Cambuci. Intrigued by the repeating shapes, he first developed a name, Finok, and then a signature style—vibrant cartoon-like characters. His work draws from traditional Brazilian vernacular imagery, incorporating vibrant colors and rich patterns into his compositions. If you notice something familiar about his work, it's because he's connected to the infamous Vlok crew (Nunca, Os Gemeos, and more), a collective in tune with creating a distinct visual identity for Brazil.
Location: São Paulo
São Paulo-based Paulo Ito, 34, gained international recognition last May when his anti-world cup mural on a local school house went viral. Ito, whose style evokes many of his peers' with its employment of elongated forms and influence of pixação slogans, is vocal about the problems plaguing his country. If he continues to paint thought-provoking murals throughout the summer, look for his name to grow in street art circles.
Location: São Paulo
Twin brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, known professionally as Os Gemeos, are Brazil's most famous street artists. They've been painting together since 1987, influenced initially by the export of New York hip-hop. As their style developed, the brothers merged wild style graffiti with homegrown folklore to forge a unique graphic identity exemplified by yellow-skinned, elongated characters. Os Gemeos are most successful when working on atypical surfaces (for example: on the Brazilian National Team's plane), and they also have an uncanny ability to fill out the average wall. First exposed to American audiences in the late '90s, Os Gemeos presented their inaugural solo exhibition at The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston in 2012. Aside from gallery and street production, the twins have also worked commercial with heavy-hitting brands Louis Vuitton and Hennessy.
