Críticas e depoimentos

Valor e referencial de São Paulo está em sua diversidade cultural, social e étnica Essa é a principal conclusão da mesa-redonda sobre Identidade Cultural Paulistana realizada nesta quarta-feira (25/4) pela Viva o Centro. Deram sua contribuição ao debate o diretor do Istituto Europeo de Design, Marko Brajovic, o DJ e jornalista Camilo Rocha, o diretor do Programa Entrelinhas da TV Cultura, Ivan Marques, o jornalista da Folha de S. Paulo, Raul Juste Lores, e o arquiteto especialista em cultura e linguagem juvenis, Baixo Ribeiro. Também compuseram a mesa o superintendente geral da Viva o Centro, Marco Antonio Ramos de Almeida, e a coordenadora do Núcleo de Estudos da entidade, Lui Carolina Tanaka, que organizou o evento. Choque de gerações Baixo Ribeiro ressaltou a característica cosmopolita da cidade de São Paulo. “Descobri isso no contato que tive com os estrangeiros que vêm para cá.” Segundo ele, “identidade é um assunto muito complexo. São Paulo não pára de crescer, diferente de ...

by Eve Hyman I knew them as cartoon characters before they were real people for me. I didn’t know if they could live up to their stickers. With wild names like “Titi Freak” and “Fefe Talavera” and with their own respective cool caricatures would they be “too cool for school” like many artists one might meet in a Chelsea gallery? Would they be overwhelmed by the language barrier and cuture shock? Would they be at all accessible or would they be like the graffiti artists of my youth – distanced, hostile, and uncomfortable in the limelight? The artists of Ruas De Sao Paulo made a lasting impression of how cool Brazilian street art is – even as imports on a Chelsea gallery wall. But beyond how stunning and original their work is, they each made an impression on me as individuals. These artists are stars and they had something to say about the role of art, about their impressions of New York, about the struggles of daily life for the majority of people in Sao Paulo, and about connecting to ...

BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO ‘RUAS DE SÃO PAULO: A SURVEY OF BRAZILIAN STREET ART’ Brazilian street artists, many of them school dropouts, have long covered the exposed walls and buildings of cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with their art. Though it is an illegal activity, it is rarely policed, and has flourished as a result. The first major New York gallery exhibition of Brazilian street art, at Jonathan LeVine, is a flamboyant powerhouse: the walls, floors and parts of the ceiling are decorated with a tangle of kaleidoscopic murals in tripped-out colors; rollicking spray-paint works on wood, clothing and canvas; and a surprising diversity of assemblages and sculpture made of found objects. It looks like a cross between graffiti, tattoo designs, underground comics and Pop art. (The show includes a mixed-media installation by Daniel Medeiros, known as Boleta, above.) Not only will the artists make their works from anything, they will also create them just about anywhere, as a documentar...

Credit: Mark Rifkin , february 2007 Presented in collaboration with Brazil’s Choque Cultural Gallery , “Ruas de São Paulo” features the innovative work of eight Brazilian street artists, all of whom were brought to New York – many for the first time –not only to participate in the installation but also to create new pieces, some painted directly on the wall -- temporary murals that will be painted over at the end of the exhibition. While several recent gallery and museum shows focusing on graffiti and street art have met with varying degrees of success—this kind of art is best seen, of course, outside, within the community that helped shape it, as a way of taking back public space and not as merchandise—Boleta, Fefê, Highraff, Kboco, Onesto, Speto, Titi Freak, and Zezão have managed to re-create much of that ever-changing environment without compromising their vision. Kboco’s Por*Arriba series consists of altered advertising images framed and hung side by side, while a fanciful chair ...