Cool Hunting

When most people think of Brazilian graffiti, they think of Os Gemeos, who've become well-known throughout the world for their prolific and whimsical style, but São Paulo has streets filled with great work. Jonathan Levine in association with São Paulo gallery Choque Cultural gallery presents "Ruas de São Paulo: A Survey of Brazilian Street Art." The group show features the abstracted bird shapes of Boleta (pictured above right), Fefe (who creates "typographical monsters" from letters cut out of street posters, pictured here), Highraff's mix of illustration, comics and organic forms, Kboco who paints totemic aboriginal forms, Onesto (pictured above left), Speto, Titi Freak, and Zezão who paints in sewers as well as on the streets. (Click images for larger size.)

A launch party takes place in New York this Thursday, 15 February 2007 to celebrate the arrival of the artists and the show opens Saturday, 17 February 2007. Ignacio Aronovich and Louise Chin, who worked on the recent book Graffiti Brasil and run Lost Art, a stunning street culture site from São Paulo, say, “We are happy to see more artists from Brazil getting recognized for their talents. It's really cool how most of the artists portrayed individually in Graffiti Brasil are really taking off.” Not only is this the first time some of these artists will show their work in the U.S., it the first time that some of them will leave Brazil. (Levine even held a fundraiser to bring the artists here and several U.S. artists donated clothes to keep the Brazilians warm during their stay in the wintery Northeast.)

Ruas de São Paulo Launch Party 15 February 2007
Hiro Ballroom
371 West 16th Street
New York, NY map
tel. +01 212 243 3822

Ruas de São Paulo
17 February-17 March 2007
Jonathan Levine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9E
New York, NY 10011 map
tel. +01 212 243 3822

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