Was the first graffiti artist in Brazil gay?

São Paulo (SP) has become more and more of a vertical, hard city every day, which takes away perspective with countless buildings popping up on the horizon. It is becoming even more concrete, less colorful and extremely in need of Art – which makes us think directly of Alex Vallauri (1949-1987).

Because we can still see his legacy on many walls around the city. The metropolis that rises, expands, forgets to color, to have fun, to look. And Vallauri wanted this ezatamentchy with his art, he wanted you, in the midst of chaos and rush, to have a moment of abstraction, enjoyment, lust, seduction or anything else that his works awakened in you.

And they still wake up, because they are there, they have survived (for now) a city that is in a hurry to go up, up, up. The boots, the roast chickens, the telephones, fluid and colorful beings that dance in a circle, vibrant colors, free graffiti designs. It has always been a calling in life, it continues to be.

Because we can never lose this freedom, this desire that led Alex to go out on the streets – often in danger of being arrested – expressing himself, trying to bring some salvation to a delicate and sad time, the 80s and the AIDS epidemic. Images of quick understanding that brought breath, momentary relief.

A pioneer in the art of graffiti in Brazil, Alex used other supports in addition to urban walls: he printed t-shirts, buttons and stickers. For him, graffiti was the form of communication that came closest to his idea of ​​art for everyone. Alex Vallauri was probably the first graffiti artist in Brazil. That’s why his date of death, March 27, is Graffiti Day in Brazil.

Biography

Alex Vallauri (Asmara Ethiopia 1949 – São Paulo SP 1987) was a graffiti artist, graphic artist, engraver, painter, designer and set designer. He arrived in Brazil in 1965 and settled in Santos, São Paulo, later moving to the capital of São Paulo. Still in Santos, he began woodcutting and won an award at the Salão de Arte Jovem, in 1968.

In 1970, he exhibited individually at the Associação Amigos do Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM∕SP). The following year, he graduated in visual communication from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (Faap) and, two years later, he became a teacher of observational drawing and free expression at the same school. He specialized in lithography at the Litho Art Center in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1975.

From 1978, back to Brazil, he created graffiti and worked with stencils in São Paulo. He held a solo show at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo in 1981. Lives in New York, where he studied graphic arts at the Pratt Institute, between 1982 and 1983. He participated in the São Paulo International Biennial in 1971, 1977, 1981 and 1985, when he showed the series The Queen of Roast Chicken, installation theme at this latest event.