Zezão

Zezão work was born directly from the streets of São Paulo since 1995 and from its darkest side the authentic pixação. As a pixador, Zezão’s (pronounced Zehzah-o) signature was “VICIO PIF DST” ( “VICIO” is something like a “vice”, “PIF” are initials of “railroad infractors and painters” and “DST” is short for destroy). He used to climb up buildings and other forbidden, or wasted places, to trow- up his “grife” (crew tags). Zezão’s calligraphy featuring characters bent and twisted in a stylized manner was especially recognizable. His “pixo” calligraphy evolved into an abstract art as he began to use spray paint to express the psychedelic images that inhabited his imagination. He created a personal technique fusing his “fumaçinhas” or “little smokes”, with more decorative and elaborate characters to creat a surreal color explosion. Zezão’s trademark arabesques became even more distinctive when he started to do throw-ups in desolate and decaying locations. His most striking works are creations in the São Paulo sewer system and subterranean water ducts. The justaposition of his lushly colored, ethereal works against the contaminated wasteland can be seen as a protest against the catastrophic effects of polluition and urban blight. With this body of work Zezão assumes a socio-political perspective, denouncing the miseries of São Paulo’s lower class. His street styles are infused in his fine art work, photos, paitings and calligraphy. Among the many graffiti artists in São Paulo, Zezão has gone to the greatest lengths and depths to make his mark on the city. Zezão paints prolifically in well-hidden places, from the abandoned ruins of the Carandiru Prison to the depths of São Paulo’s sewers. Painting in the sewers is not for the faint-hearted, and proper equipment is essential. Undeterred by flash flooding or the risk of disease, Zezão has made the sewers his own personal world of exploration, with very few painters foolhardy enough to follow.His work takes on several forms according to the location. In the sewers he paints organic shapes, which he calls “flops”, on the streets he sometimes paints pixação, and whit bigger murals he has developed a colorful psychedelic style. His psychedelic designs are a typical story of Brazilian ingenuity: unable to afford spray-paint, he would make use of the last drops of spray in cans, which people would donate to him, to creat amazing fractals of colour.In a city that is often unforgiving, he makes art in the streets ‘to leave his personal brand and feel like a part of this city that casts peoples away. He hopes that, through his work, he can send good vibrations to all kinds of people in the street, especially the poor and the homeless, to send them some affection in their hard life.
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Shot with DSC-W100 at 2007-07-12.. .. .. ..