Eltono’s piece for Rojo Out Urban Stage

After São Paulo city officials ordered graffiti cleanup crews to leave work by Os Gêmeos and other famous São Paulo street artists alone, art collective and magazine Rojo asked the city’s Urban Development Department to allow them to tap artists like Tofer and MWM Graphics to help spice up drab concrete structures across the city. “It was the first time they’ve allowed it,” says Zagg Guimaraes, Rojo’s associate director in Brazil. “We’re trying to make the city more beautiful.” Dubbing the operation RojoOut, the public art exhibit continues a similar three-year project in Barcelona that they started in 2006.

Sponsored by Smart, the just-completed project commissioned Rojo-affiliated artists to paint 11 concrete structures including air-vent columns and blank walls across São Paulo over a few weeks. Nuria Mora, Tony de Marco, Superblast and Eltono got on scaffolds to paint, while MWM Graphics, Ovni and Tofer scaled and drew their work but handed it off to collaborators to carry out.

Spread across three locations, Avenida Juscelino Kubitschek by the Povo and Ibirapuera parks and near the Ibirapuera Park entrance, the permanent exhibit happily faces no threat of removal.

via RojoOut Urban Stage São Paulo.

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• Born in Brazil issue @ Wallpaper*
• São Paulo’s Modern Art Museum “Brazilian Design Today: Frontiers”

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