Mulheres Barbadas must have been working out their arms, but considering what we already know about them, they’re used to it. They’re a few steps beyond the starting line of five long days of live painting at Sao Paulo’s concept furniture store Micasa, where they’ll leave nothing—walls, tables, chairs, refrigerators, even owner Houssein Jarouche’s Mini Cooper—untouched with black marker. The duo, who take turns intertwining each other’s wacky drawings in magnificent detail, are streaming their intense art session on their site and told me they are already so productive that they’re running out of things to paint. In fact, it must not only be their arms that are tired but their brains too: they’re encouraging viewers to suggest what images they want them to put on the walls and furniture by adding the tag “#mulheresbarbadas” to Tweets. After Mulheres Barbadas reach the finish line, they’ll put the finished goods on for sale at Micasa. The walls will likely stay put though–the building’s schedule to be demolished in a few months. Tune in between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sao Paulo time to watch the fun unfold.
Inspired by modern ruins and the spirit that remains alive inside of them, Geometry of Ruins seeks to simultaneously provoke feelings of hope and its death. The multimedia show by Tyger creator Guilherme Marcondes and his artist wife Andrezza Valentin—both from Sao Paulo and now living stateside—goes from an art center in Sao Paulo that was never finished, whose mystical what-could-have-been promise is amplified by a superimposed eclipse on fire, to a video installation with dozens of tiny screens flashing frenetic images and mimicking the city’s grid layout. I love the couple’s concept of using structures as literal skeletons in which to frame imagination. The show runs till July 11 at Flux Salon in Venice, CA, the wonderful little gallery by Jonathan and Meg Wells (of ResFest fame).
JoshSpear.com palMWM Graphics (Matt W. Moore) is finishing up a month-long stint of work and play in Sao Paulo, putting the final touches on spray painted pieces for tomorrow’s kickoff of his first-ever solo show in South America, Parallel Universe, at Rojo Magazine’s Artspace. The graphic design wunderkind arrived with no materials and created everything in the show from scratch in a studio in boho Pinheiros. The results are canvas versions of his famous vector illustrations, and they interestingly blur the line between digital and literal handiwork. Check out an in-depth interview with him on TotalSPGuide.com in which a writer takes him out for forro dancing and drinks, and in the midst of it all that mental lubrication, Moore reveals some great (and inspirational) insights into his work process. Â Looks fantastic.
You’re getting the first look at Nike Sportswear in Brazil’s new pop-up store Canarinho in the Gallery of Rock in Sao Paulo and its accompanying Brazilian-produced line. Gallery of Rock is a multi-story behemoth of stores in the city’s decadent downtown dedicated to Brazilian alternative culture, from hip-hop to cosplay, so they couldn’t have picked a more appropriate place to launch the colorful boutique. Named after the pet name Brazilians gave to their national soccer team during the World Cup in which they wore yellow jerseys for the first time, the collection features local artists Don Torelly, Presto and Jurubis, whose takes are fun, animated visions on the classic Blazers and Dunk Lows, plus tees. Eduardo Saretta from Choque Cultural put together the creative team. See more photos after the jump, and if you gotta get your hands on these surely limited editions, hit up Maze in Sao Paulo.
Geometrical, precise and wonderfully intricate to such a degree that you can spend time completely wrapped up in only one section of them before moving on to a different part, Fernando Chamarelli’s paintings mishmash all manner of references to dizzying effect. Like Bruno 9li, he intertwines history and iconography—religious, philosophic—using Brazilian pop culture to carry the aesthetics of pre-Colombian indigenous art. The artist’s background spans to cartoons and portraits before developing a healthy interest in street art and tattooing, the latter of which likely explains his eye for color and edge. Simply put, this guy rocks. His show Viracocha just launched at Rojo’s space at Livraria Pop in Sao Paulo and will be there until June 20, but experience it vicariously through his inspiring photostream.
Although her ink drawings always carry a somber vibe about them, Thais Beltrame’s (the only girl holding it down in the Sao Paulo artist collective Famiglia Baglione) U.S. solo debut will be anything but low key. Her new black-and-white works will be joined by watercolors for her When All the Stars Are Gone exhibit kicking off at Carmichael Gallery this Thursday. The title of the show refers to the literal skies, where she looks to for inspiration, and the pieces feature children walking down the path of awareness, turning into new people as they become wiser. I’m totally into the pensive state her work always leaves me in. The show runs till May 28, and in the back gallery will also be Get Rich Quick, a collection from the gallery’s collectors that includes work by Barry McGee, David Choe, Banksy and Kaws.
A dozen lifetimes’ worth of collecting all things kitsch lines the high walls of Scenarium, a three story samba club in Lapa, the epicenter of Rio de Janeiro’s nightlife scene. The club is the manifestation of owner PlÃnio Fróes’ pledge to keep alive the tradition of samba as well as choro, a musical stlye born on the streets of Rio more than 200 years ago.
Clubs in Rio embody a distinct warmth that can be attributed to the attitudes of clubgoers, void of the too-cool dancefloor politics found in the major venues of any American city. Image goes out the window once the band starts playing, and it no longer matters wether you know the dance moves or not. Scenarium enhances this atmosphere with a space unlike any other. Carved into three ancient houses, it’s filled with artifacts from tacky statues of Christ to twisted metal grills of old facades, each set of items grouped in a cluster on a part of the wall. The second floor bar is particularly attractive; an old apothecary shop complete with hundreds of age-old medicine bottles with moth-eaten labels.
Scenarium is the whole experience, lounge to dancefloor. A Wednesday night will leave you room to marvel at the wall treasures, while a Saturday crowd will bring treasures of its own.
Ladies and gentleman: Our very own Sao Paulo correspondent Phuong-Cac is a now a published author. Hooray! Total Sao Paulo: A Guide To The Unexpected is out today! The book is all about, you guessed it, Sao Paulo– features maps, illustrations, a slang glossary (very important, man) as well as a curated list of the best restaurants, bars, clubs, shops, galleries, museums and other can’t miss things around the city.
All the photographs and illustrations featured inside are from talented people living in Sao Paulo– and launching with the book is a local listings site that will have magazine-style stories on Sao Paulo bands, artists, markets, and everything else you need to know about this amazing city.
Wanna celebrate the launch? Thought so. Head over to Carmichael Gallery in LA on Saturday, May 9th from 3-7pm and listen to performances by Andrea Ferraz, watch a capoeira demonstration, and hear DJ Marlon Fuentes play a special set of Sao Paulp legends. Not in LA this weekend? Just jump up and down on your bed after you’ve bought the book.
Congrats PC! Pictures of “inside the book” after the jump (looks fantastic)…
Interesting things are happening in the sneaker/partnering news department this week. Run-DMC’s abandoned their Adidas loyalty to Nike by releasing a Nike+ running soundtrack. And on the heels of that is Vice Brazil’s launch with partner Converse in tow. Kicking off Tuesday is The Way We Run, a multi-track of events spanning art, music, fashion and skate in Sao Paulo, like a meet and greet with team skaters and DJ sets, all taking place at various high-profile places for six weeks. The event ends with a surprise show. I met Vice Brazil publisher Tony Cebrian a few months ago, who told me he has big plans for the Vice empire’s South American version of the free magazine, including featuring stories that will knock any generalizations of Brazil right out of the water. Look for a translated version of those stories to wind their way to your copy of Vice soon. I’m looking forward, just as you likely are, of seeing some Dos and Dont’s from below the Equator.
If you’re any what of a beat head, you know all about 1992’s Brasilintime, a history-making documentary film by hip-hop photographer B+ linking old-school percussion legends with beatmakers of our time like Madlib and Cut Chemist, shot around Sao Paulo. With his Mochilla partner Eric Coleman—both brought the heralded concert series Timeless to L.A. and along with it Arthur Verocai— they just dropped a trailer for their newest project, Tradition in Transition: A Postcard from Cali. Focused around the making of Quantic’s record of the same name that comes out in July, they shot footage for the film in Colombia’s Cali and Buenaventura, where Quantic lives. The trailer gives a taste into the film’s juxtaposition of these cities’ everyday life and people with the music from this American-born artist. While the first thing most people still associate upon hearing Colombia is drugs and the FARC, check out the trailer for a refresh: It’s a great thing to see the concentration elsewhere for once.
Though it’s already in a hot lipstick-red color, the spectacular sleekness of the Capacete E8 motorcycle helmet by Sao Paulo design firm Questto Design is a serious competitor for your attention. Winner of the 2009 IF Product Design Award in its category in Brazil, this sexy helmet made from plastic resin boasts flexibility: you can wear it open-visor or with the chin lifted to let in more air, which makes it seem like it’s completely open (in Sao Paulo, when they stop to make a delivery, motorcycle delivery guys will take their helmets off to the point that it’s holding only the crown of their head). It’s being put out by Brazil-based EBF helmet company and will likely only be sold within Brazil, but nevertheless, it gives out true border-jumping inspiration in the industry for a motorbike essential. Daft Punk might consider a change of headwear after seeing this hottie.
The art attacks in Sao Paulo are continuing, and they only seem to be gaining in strength and scaring the bejeezus out of gallerists. Around the same time when pixadores once again caused a hubbub — this time on the opening day of the 28th Sao Paulo Biennial — by tagging up the building’s second floor (purposely left empty by the curators to inspire new thoughts and ideas), a sticker group called the ARAC Group started surreptitiously invading this same notorious “Void” in their own method. Armed with instructions from a manual developed specifically for the Biennial, and a sarcastic take on the art show’s “In Living Contact” theme, participants carry out the underground stickering sting, decorating the white pillars with their signs of life. You can check out some of the photographed results here. The show runs till the beginning of December, so it’s likely the Void won’t be left vacant after all — which, ironically, achieves the curators’ intents for the space.
When crisis takes over a country, its citizens, as history has shown, oftentimes returns to its cultural roots to help find stability in all the chaos. Woodstock, for example, proved that unrest during wartime adds water for creativity to grow. This is the philosophy being promoted at the exciting Antidote: Cultural Actions in Conflict Zones International Seminar taking place in Sao Paulo as we speak, an annual look at how art and culture persist throughout violence and war in rural and urban areas across the world. Documentaries profiling the different people living in favelas across Brazil, what America would be like without immigrants, and violence in Colombia are just some of the films that are being shown at the free event. Sprinkled in between arefilmmaker debates and hip-hop and samba performances (speaking of culture). You can watch one of the more famous docs (above), Falcon: Boys of the Drug Trade, albeit in parts. There’s a weird comfort in knowing good can come out of the bad. The commendable-worthy programming runs till Oct. 23.
There must be something in the water lately in Sao Paulo, because it seems like it’s a particularly blooming time for art galleries here on account of the rash of fine, inspiring art they’re showing. Among these contributing to the cause is Wagner Pinto, a different kind of Brazilian artist we’ve been featuring lately on JoshSpear.com — uniquely Brazilian influences, such as iconic references to the Afro-Brazilian religions of Cadomble and Umbanda, and country folklore make their way onto his canvases. Pinto is part of an art collective called Upgrade do Macaco, which counts members like Bruno 9li who dash a bit if the mystical into their works in a street-savvy way. Pinto’s latest works just opened in his solo Miracao at Rojo ArtSpace in Sao Paulo.
Geometrical, precise and wonderfully intricate to such a degree that you can spend time completely wrapped up in only one section of them before moving on to a different part, Fernando Chamarelli’s paintings mishmash all manner of references to dizzying effect. Like 
If you’re any what of a beat head, you know all about 1992’s Brasilintime, a history-making documentary film by hip-hop photographer B+ linking old-school percussion legends with beatmakers of our time like Madlib and Cut Chemist, shot around Sao Paulo. With his 
Though it’s already in a hot lipstick-red color, the spectacular sleekness of the Capacete E8 motorcycle helmet by Sao Paulo design firm 
The art attacks in Sao Paulo are continuing, and they only seem to be gaining in strength and scaring the bejeezus out of gallerists. Around the same time when pixadores once again caused a hubbub — this time on the opening day of the 28th Sao Paulo Biennial — by tagging up the building’s second floor (purposely left empty by the curators to inspire new thoughts and ideas), a sticker group called the 
