I was first properly introduced to Brazilian Graffiti through Ignacio and Louise at Lost Art. In 1999 they sent me copies of Fiz magazine – a magazine designed by Os Gemeos – the magazine completely blew me away! At the time very few gringos were aware of the exciting graffiti scene that was developing especially in Sao Paulo. Twist had spent some time in Sao Paulo in 1993, meeting Os Gemeos which became a two way exchange of ideas. But it wasn’t until Sonik and Raven from 12oz Prophet visited Sao Paulo in 1997, who subsequently did a big feature on the scene, that graffiti writers worldwide become more aware of Brazilian Graffiti.
Sonik aka Caleb Neelon and Lost Art went on to be my partners for the Graffiti Brasil book – so it was great today to hear news via Lost Art’s twitter of a rare film surfacing of the legendary 12oz Prophet visit…
Image above: Sonik, Os Gemeos and Vitche from Caleb’s website.
Abundantly creative is perhaps the best way to describe Vhils, a young Portuguese artist who constantly innovates with new techniques and approaches to his art.
I’ve long been a supporter of his work – and was lucky enough to be able to invite him Cans Festival in 2008. It was also a pleasure to feature his work in depth in my next book which will be published later this year.
For the uninitiated, Vhils’s current work is about revealing images through deconstruction (in the demolition sense – construction in reverse). By stencilling, stripping away billboards and chiselling into walls; Vhils creates new images that reflect the random decay of the streets. At the same time Vhils’s uses portraiture to evoke the lives and ghosts of people who make up the history and life of our cities.
I was very excited to see Vhils new work in Bogota, with thanks to the Memoria Canalla team. It is a city I found fascinating and great to see that Vhils was able to leave his mark there.
Thanks to Terence Jones exhibitions officer at Leeds College of Art for organising a show of Choque Cultural prints at the college. He sent me a few snaps of the prints in situ and they look great…
Two artists who have consistently excited me over the years are Nunca and Blu. Nunca was one of the artists we featured in Graffiti Brasil and while we were working on the book (in 2004) both myself, Caleb and Lost Art thought him the artist most likely to break through. At the time Os Gemeos, Nina, Vitche and Herbert Baglione were already known abroad, but Nunca was still young and unknown outside of Brazil. Finally in recent years, partly through the Tate Modern street art exhibition Nunca really has deservedly broken through to International recognition. Blu was one of the superstars of Street Sketchbook – it was really fantastic to see and learn about his sketchbooks for that project in 2006 – and every year since then its been a joy to watch him continue to grow as an artist.
Today I came across a collaborative street piece on Nunca’s flickr painted in Moderna, featuring both of them. I absolutely love this… Nunca’s severed hand, a metaphor of colonial bloodshed and exploitation in society, meets Blu’s faceless robot.. the matrix has broken…
I hope they get to paint together again soon… perhaps at Fame Festival this year
This post comes a little late - Hugo Kaagman’s book Stencil King was published in November 2009 by Lebowski Publishers. I was honoured to be asked to write the introduction to it. I first got to know Kaagman’s work on an art college trip to Amsterdam in 1986 – I was blown away by what I saw – hundreds of amazing stencils making up a giant mural in Waterlooplein. I guess this is where I first got the bug for Stencil Graffiti. Many years later I was able to invite him to take part in one of the biggest ever stencil art gatherings – Cans Festival underneath Waterloo station. The book is well worth tracking down to see a life in stencils by the stencil kind himself….
Having become interested in Chicha posters recently I stumbled across a Peruvian Street artist called Faber who uses these posters as a backdrop to his work.
A great use of found surfaces and colour contrasts for this emotive subject.
