theprintspace Gallery is proud to announce the official opening of a new exhibition by TropCrew, a 23 strong Brazilian street art collective!
Limited edition fine art prints of all the work in the show are available to buy here.
There has been an explosion of Street Art in London over the past decade and Brazilian artists have been a huge part of this. Brazil has an extremely vibrant street art scene which produces some incredible artists, often making work that comments on political or social issues. Tropicality aims to show a different side to the Brazilian art that we have seen before, we spoke to Ricardo Scacchetti, one of the partners of TropCrew to find out more about them and the exhibition.
Tell us a bit about TropCrew. When and how did it start?
Tropcrew’s structure is composed of 3 partners and 20 artists. One of the partners, Paulo Mestriner, is my best friend since we were 5 year old, and the other one, Roberto Scacchetti is my brother, so literally, we are a family. Since we were kids, we had this deep interest in art, street culture, rap. We used to do graffiti at the time that was illegal and far from becoming mainstream. Even if we followed completely different professional paths (I’m a designer, Paulo is psychologist and Roberto is lawyer), our friends always asked for advice, tips and referrals when the subject was street art. Therefore, creating TropCrew as a proper company was just a matter of time.
It seems like you are spread all over the world, with artists living in Brazil, Australia, UK, USA, Ireland. How does this work as a collective?
All of our artists are based in Brazil, but we have agents in all of these hot spots, that could connect us with nice projects.
The styles of the TropCrew artists are extremely diverse as well as the techniques they use. Did they all come from a graffiti/street art background?
Yes, they were chosen carefully by us, in order to show the world the vast range of styles it’s possible to find in Brazil. 90% percent of them have a street art background, and the minority come from a plastic arts background.
You say “Brazilian culture is much more than just samba, carnival and football. Brazil goes beyond the violence, corrupted politicians and beautiful ‘mulatas’.” What do you think this work shows about Brazil that people haven’t seen before?
We asked the artists to create a painting thinking about their cultural background, their inspiration, their day-to-day life as a child who was born and raised in Brazil. The result of their diverse points of view is much more deep than the Brazilian usual clichê. It is our first exhibition in London and we are really excited and looking forward to making it happen!
“Brazilian culture is much more than just samba, carnival and football. Brazil goes beyond the violence, corrupted politicians and beautiful ‘mulatas’.”
Featured artists:
Aline Fraga
Angerami
Elvis Mourão
ícone K
Marcella Riani
Prozak
Quinho
Santvs
Sow
Treco
You can buy prints here.
