This month Choque Cultural gallery in Sao Paulo present a solo show by Zezao, an artist who continues to impress me through his artwork and actions. I first got to know Zezao researching the Graffiti Brasil book in around 2004.

Having been involved in graffiti painting, train bombing and pichacao tagging for many years – Zezao is a graffiti veteran. By the time I was introduced to him he had evolved his own style of painting his “flops” (throw-ups). These flops are characteristically painted in shades of blue in a free-form style. He has become most famous for painting these flops in the sewers of Sao Paulo, but he also paints them on the streets, particularly where the homeless build makeshift shelters and sleep by the road side.

As he paints the “homes” of the rough sleepers, who sometimes include families – he talks with them, gets to know them and helps them out when he can. By painting where they live, his paintings become a sign of life or a notice of the people living there. It is a simple way of acknowledging people who are often ignored by the thousands of people who drive past them everyday.

So how does Zezao’s art work in a gallery context? Zezao doesn’t claim to be the new Picasso, he is very modest about his own artistic talents. However he is always pushing his art and exploring in directions such as performance, installation and photography to name a few. His abstract forms have an integrity and skill from many years of painting, but he doesn’t rely on simply reproducing what he creates on the street. He draws from his experiences of the city both above ground and subterranean in his creations.

By all accounts this current show is Zezao’s most critically successful to date. In his various works using ripped posters and materials sourced on the street, along side his signature gold and blue palette, as well as beautiful photographs of his underground installations. All images courtesy of Lost Art.

More images from the show here.

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Choque Cultural have been busy working on new original prints. Some have been produced using the woodcuts and or a mixture with traditional Lambe Lambe woodblock print techniques at the Grafica Fidalga. These include two prints by Derlon and one each by Daniel Melim and Jaca.

Derlon Almeida is a young artist from Recife in the Northeast state of Pernambuco. Having been a graffiti artist since a teenager, today Derlon’s work is influenced by local culture and the traditional woodcut art of the region known as Cordel.

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Since I started work on my last book Graffiti Brasil a few years ago I became a fan of the Choque Cultural gallery in Sao Paulo.

A few years later I am proud to be partnering with them with a worldwide on-line store and gallery - http://www.choquecultural.co.uk/

In the next months we’ll be producing new screenprints which will be available worldwide.

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As part of my partnership with Choque Cultural gallery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I managed the artwork for screenprints with artists with whom we both wanted to work.  Examples here are a prints by the French artist Remed and Brazilian artists Carlos Dias, Speto, Zezao and TitiFreak.

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