A mural that I did at my good friend Malu´s place…!

Amazing process and magical photos with my good friend Henrique Madeira…

Back to the streets… Sailling at Rio de Janeiro

This was one week of hard work but it definitely paid back. We were 6 friends (Rafo, Rafa Uzai, Bives, Mdga, Nicolau and me) painting in a very peculiar area of Rio. When you think of Rio de Janeiro, the image that pops up in your mind is Ipanema, copacabana, samba… But this is a really small area of the city. The rest of it, is full of this degraded areas… Poor neighborhoods that has nothing to do with Rio´s stereotype of magical city. It´s the kind of place that I like to paint… where I feel that we did a nice work for the neighbors…!

Thanks to Paola and Lucas for your help and all the pavuna neighborhood for the love!

Tom Zé has always being one of my favourites Brazilian composers.. I spent half of my life listening to his songs. He was one of the founders of the tropicalia movement, with Caetano Veloso, Torquato Neto, Gilberto Gil, etc.. A couple of months ago, I received this surprising call from a friend that is a art director, Richard Vignais, saying:”Hey Villas, how would you like to make an art for the cover of Tom Zé´s new album?”

You can imagine how stoned I got.. The project worked out pretty smooth, Tom Zé loved the painting I did and that was probably one of the best projects I ever got involved!

“trabalho para o amor” – Vovó Cambinda (Rio de Janeiro)

Rio de Janeiro has a lot of those informal propaganda painted banners… I decided to make them more fun!

Encounters…

Last couple of weeks I was invited to get part in this really beautiful project, created by the street artist, Mundano, who describes himself as a ARTivist. He created a project called Pimp My Carroça, inspired by MTV’s Pimp My Ride, for which he paints designs with a message on street collectors’ wooden carts to raise funds for them and get more recognition for the incredible recycling work they do.

Thanks to Mel Duarte and her support and to Zé Carlos and his familly who let me paint their cart! It was a special day!

This´s a big mural in a super conflictive area here in Rio de Janeiro.
This area is quite dangerous, while I was painting there I saw cars being stolen, shootings between police and drug dealers, crack addicts stealing people…
Super tense atmosphere… But this neighbourhood has a lot of  good people living there as well, with their childrens…  So I decided to paint a child´s dream.. playing and being happy.
The words that I wrote are from a Brazilian poet (Mario Quintana) and makes a wordplay that translated, it´s not that much fun… but it´s something like  “The will pass, I´ll be a Bird”

My piece is part of this big mural ( Rio´s biggest mural) and the other artists were Afa, Bruno Big, BR (Fleshbeck Crew), MDGA and Tarm. Big ups for our producer, Carol Lyra.

Feliz dia de São Jorge! Feliç diada de Sant Jordi per tothom! Minha Homenagem ao Santo Guerreiro!

This weekend´s giant ass graffiti from
Boris Hoppek + Nina + Villas + Antonio Bokel

I was enjoying so much Brazilian carnival that I was almost forgetting how much I love to paint in the streets! This is a very abandoned neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, all the friends that I made today was homeless people, invisible for many.. Sidney spent the day with me helping and being nice. I intend to come back there and make more drawings!

O equilibrista, collaboration with my friend MDG -  Rio de Janeiro

For Fashion Bussiness fair (Jockey Club, Rio de Janeiro) – Thanks to Camila and Ligia!

Grande Honra ter sido convidado para pintar esse pequeno mural no Instituto dos Pretos Novos. Lugar incrível e parte da nossa estória (esquecida e vergonhosa). Um cemitério de escravos que chegavam à cidade já debilitados de saúde pela viagem em navio e morriam antes mesmo de serem comprados. Eram jogados todos juntos numa mesma vala coletiva, sem respeito às tradições das religiões africanas que consideram o sepultamento uma premissa para uma continuação da vida em outro plano junto aos seus antepassados. Enfim, o memorial foi inaugurado essa semana e está lindo..! Escavações arqueológicas e muitas estórias e personagens vocês encontram ali para um bom bate papo, vale a visita! O bairro é ótimo! Um Salve pra Tia Lúcia, Mercedes, Petrúcio, Reinaldo, Júlio e todo mundo que nos recebeu lá com os braços abertos!

Really touched by being invited to paint this little piece in the IPN. The IPN is an memorial to the horrible (and not that far history) that we have here in Brazil. Turns out that we were the last country in the world to abolish slavery… sad, isn’t  it? Well, brutality and cruelty were considered “normal” back in that days. The IPN honor the memory of the slaves that arrived in Rio in not a good shape and after a little time passed away before being sold… They were disposed all together in the same hole, crushed and carbonized. they discovered it couple of years ago, when a nice couple – Mercedes and Petrúcio- bought a house in the Gamboa, a neigborhood that has its roots as a slave market. After digging just a bit, they discovered the remains of approximately 30.000 persons… So they decided to convert their home into a memorial for those whose have never had even a name. Thanks for inviting me for doing this little piece inside.

nesse video, dirigido por Divina Huguet – FluxoLab, dá para conhecer melhor a estória toda:

It´s been a while since I started to make characters made of wood and spread it around, like my birds… This time I wanted to make something fun at my street here in Rio de Janeiro… and interact with the people I hang each single day when I go to work or to the beach… They are all crazy about soccer and they are all day long teasing each other about who´s going to win Brazilian championship…Well, this is my way to say: -” It´s nice to be around again!”

We had a great time celebrating with our friends our new studio in Rio de Janeiro!

Rio de Janeiro

Barcelona

Yeah! First graffiti in Rio since I arrived here! Nice, nice!

In the wall: Villas+Thiago+Ment+Mdga+Big