Wacky is wonderful. Self-expression is, of course, what makes the world of art so superbly rich. On this wacky (and I mean it in the best sense of the word) tip is Sixeart’s newest mixed-media-on-paper show in Sao Paulo, Sueñan las gallinas con ser humanas (The Hens Dream About Being Human), which has specially created a baker’s dozen of new works. The Barcelona-bred artist cut his teeth with graffiti in the ’80s, but went on to scale big heights — literally — when he joined Os Gemeos and JR for the Tate Modern’s Godzilla-sized street art spotlight last year. Incorporating the influence of classic Spanish artists into his urban-style work, this latest brood addresses mutating animals, which is the last theme in a series (the first two are “bad children with fringe” and “circuits.” Miro definitely comes to mind when you see his black, bold lines dividing yellows and reds, making his chicks hot, colorful little numbers. The exhibit runs at Rojo’s Artspace until Sept. 5, but you can shop the work here.

JoshSpear.com pal MWM Graphics (Matt W. Moore) is finishing up a month-long stint of work and play in Sao Paulo, putting the final touches on spray painted pieces for tomorrow’s kickoff of his first-ever solo show in South America, Parallel Universe, at Rojo Magazine’s Artspace. The graphic design wunderkind arrived with no materials and created everything in the show from scratch in a studio in boho Pinheiros. The results are canvas versions of his famous vector illustrations, and they interestingly blur the line between digital and literal handiwork. Check out an in-depth interview with him on TotalSPGuide.com in which a writer takes him out for forro dancing and drinks, and in the midst of it all that mental lubrication, Moore reveals some great (and inspirational) insights into his work process.  Looks fantastic.

Geometrical, precise and wonderfully intricate to such a degree that you can spend time completely wrapped up in only one section of them before moving on to a different part, Fernando Chamarelli’s paintings mishmash all manner of references to dizzying effect. Like Bruno 9li, he intertwines history and iconography—religious, philosophic—using Brazilian pop culture to carry the aesthetics of pre-Colombian indigenous art. The artist’s background spans to cartoons and portraits before developing a healthy interest in street art and tattooing, the latter of which likely explains his eye for color and edge. Simply put, this guy rocks. His show Viracocha just launched at Rojo’s space at Livraria Pop in Sao Paulo and will be there until June 20, but experience it vicariously through his inspiring photostream.

We really do love urbanism, but this isn’t just about our love of cities, it’s about an art opening. The Dalston Superstore is cutting the red ribbon with a show featuring five artist’s creating in cities around the world. Martin Wolerstam, Julia Corsado, Alex Bartolomei, Alex Nobel and Bigote Rojo (sorry no online presence) have all focused their lasers on art inspired by their urban surroundings. Very fitting for the ultra urban and uber hip Dalston district of London.

Details below:

We Heart Urban
Private View: Tuesday May 5th, 7 till 10 pm (facebook invite)
Dalston Superstore — 117 Kingsland High Street, London, E8 2PB

image: pancho tolchinsky

If you happen to be in Barcelona during the month of March, you might notice a number of billboards that aren’t selling you anything, and are more eye-catching than the average ad. ROJOOut is an exhibition that takes place all over the city, placing the works of 20 emerging artists on 44 backlit billboards in a strategic pattern throughout Barcelona. The pieces range from black and white collage work to tripped out M.C. Escher-esque depictions of color from artists around Europe. If you can’t make it out there for this, check out some of the work at ROJO’s site. More after the jump.
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Wow. One of our favorite indie art publishers Rojo (as in Rojo Magazine, yo) just released a hot lil’ set of posters for 200 first-comers. The 10 posters from MWM, Bruno 9li, Neasden Control Centre, Evgeny Kiselev, Catalina Estrada, Dalek, Sergei Sviatchenko, Wagner Pinto, Alexander Egger, Veljko Onjin are all unreleased works. Which means if you hit a financial slump one day, these could save your bank account because they’re surely collectors’ items. The set runs $170 and each measures 59 x 21 inches.

There must be something in the water lately in Sao Paulo, because it seems like it’s a particularly blooming time for art galleries here on account of the rash of fine, inspiring art they’re showing. Among these contributing to the cause is Wagner Pinto, a different kind of Brazilian artist we’ve been featuring lately on JoshSpear.com — uniquely Brazilian influences, such as iconic references to the Afro-Brazilian religions of Cadomble and Umbanda, and country folklore make their way onto his canvases. Pinto is part of an art collective called Upgrade do Macaco, which counts members like Bruno 9li who dash a bit if the mystical into their works in a street-savvy way. Pinto’s latest works just opened in his solo Miracao at Rojo ArtSpace in Sao Paulo.

eBoy is everywhere. If you’re a geek, you saw their poster for MakerFaire. If you like beats, you picked up the latest issue of BPM. And if you collect toys, you have an opinion on their Peecol figures. Now eBoy has teamed up with JoshSpear favorite ROJO for the production of a limited edition monographic book entitled Schmock. The 160-page book contains photos and art in the eBoy style. You can pick up a copy for 30 Euros, or indulge in the bookpack where you get all four “new edicions” (Clayton Brothers, Veljko Onjin, eBoy and Robert Hardgrave) for the price of three. Have a look at the rest of the ROJO shop too. Toy fans may want to pick up copies of the mongraphic books by Dalek, Friends With You and Jon Burgerman. All ROJO editions are limited to 500 copies.

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Last year we turned you on to Brazilian artist tag team Mulheres Barbadas (that’s “bearded women” in Portuguese, just to give you an idea of this duo’s type of humor), and almost a year after the post, they just mounted their exhibit in Sao Paulo called Waxed Men (hmm, I’m seeing theme here). The show features fresh works solely in pen, a feat they admit is more time consuming than using Photoshop, but a heck of a lot more enjoyable. One of the most labor-intensive pieces took them three days to finish, and it also took that long for them to paint the wall outside of the show space — their first ever, by the way. The works have no specific subject, but instead are about “chaos, mayhem and toast.” Though they are looking forward to painting more outside spaces, team member Julio Zukerman was reported to be suffering “drawing spasms in his sleep after [their] little drawing marathon,” so they’re resting easy for a while. The exhibit runs at Rojo Magazine’s Sao Paulo art space in Livraria Pop until June 28th. Check out their website to see the collaboration in action.

We can't get enough of the bold, clean work of design master and JoshSpear favorite Matt W. Moore. As the man behind MWM Graphics, we're not entirely sure where he finds the time to get as much done as he does, but we're not complaining.

His latest solo show, MWM 20/20, is up right now at ROJO Artspace in Barcelona. Exploring the collision of geometry and abstract art, his wall-sized works combine sleek lines with in your face color. No matter where you first gaze, your eye is always led on an optic trip to another point of focus. If you happen to be in Barcelona (and if you're heading there, please take us with you) now's your last chance as his show is running until the end of May. All good things come to an end, and you don't have much time left. So go … now!

If you're not able to jet over to Spain, don't despair. His recently released hardcover book, MWM: Vectorfunk, is 160-pages of pure creative vector goodness. Featuring various works from his ongoing Vectorfunk geometric illustration series, the book gives you another glimpse into Moore's world of acid-bright color, symmetry, and light. Plus, it will look damn hot on your coffee table.

Some graphic designers have more flow than others — and I’m not talking about those who moonlight as rappers. Brazilian freelance art director Cristiano Trinidade is more whom I have in mind. His repertoire of drawings, graphic and motion design work stand out for their fluid lines and organic feel. It’s a perfect contrast to the concrete cityscape of Barcelona, where he recently mounted an outdoor billboard assigned to him by ROJO. I’m into the textures in his designs; a style that makes them more complex. With this type of flow, who needs rhymes?

The folks at Barcelona’s artist and designer consortium, ROJO, have been on our radar for quite some time now. Their wonderful design books, coupled with a multitude of other artistic endeavors, have more or less become staples of our design diet. Luckily for us we’re still hungry for more, because as our preferred purveyors of Spanish design perfection, they’ve got even more goodies for us to eat up. This time the group behind ROJO Magazine is going beyond print and product collaborations by expanding into the world of video art. Their new site, ROJO TV Online focuses on bringing art fans the best video talent around, completely ad free. Not only can you see astonishing work created by artists such as Robert Seidel, Antenna, and Javier Longobardo, but if you fancy yourself a master of the moving image, there’s an open call to submit your own pieces. So go ahead … show the art world you’re a creative force to be reckoned with.

Brazilian artist Alex Hornest, or Ornesto as he’s otherwise known by his street name, is a different kind of artist than the others I’ve been sharing with you lately. A rooted legend in this country’s street art scene, Ornesto’s just released a book of drawings with another street artist, called 100COTIDIANO . Rojo Magazine is dedicating its art space in Sao Paulo to his work starting tomorrow at the Livraria Pop store in a show called That Isn’t Easily Found, which will show Ornesto flexing his artistic muscle on found materials, from sculpture to paint works. I’ve always liked his drawings, but will find his mixed-media stuff equally as thrilling if it all looks like what you see in the photo. The theme of this show revolves around his heroic task of sorts: to save and remind the public about basic human values such as sincerity, generosity and friendship. Simple, but we need someone to put them in our face once in a while. The show runs through April 19th.

Matt W. Moore knows the remedy to day job doldrums. An ex-agency man turned big-time web designer, Matt has never renounced his personal creative pursuits for his job – a sacrifice that today's creative types find themselves depressingly prone to.

From his early days in advertising to his current responsibilities (keeping the Burton website sparkly fresh), Matt has been filling his downtime with personal side projects that feed his soul as much as his bank account. His versatile career experiences — as gallery artist, pre-press designer, editorial illustrator, art director, and curator, to name a few — have given him the experience he needs for side projects like Wallspankers, a sticky extension of Matt's graffiti past, and the B/W Bangers, Matt's very own saving grace.

So what is the remedy? It's one part introspection; one part creativity; one part confidence –- and a little dose of self–publishing.

Joshspear.com: For a period you lived the increasingly common double life of an ad man by day/artist by night. What finally inspired you to start MWM Graphics?

Matt W. Moore: I actually started MWM Graphics while I was in college. I would side hustle logos, concert posters, editorial illustrations, anything that I thought would be exciting and help me grow as a designer. I caught an awesome break during my last year of school and started to work at an agency in Portland, Maine called The VIA Group. I later moved into an Art Director position there and worked on some fun accounts, all the while doing personal work and freelance in my free time. Now I work as a web designer at Burton Snowboards, and stay busy with all sorts of personal projects. The “double life” has been my style all along. I hope to one day break away and devote all of my time and energy towards my studio and making art. READ MORE…

It seems like everyone these days finds inspiration in being Eco-Friendly. It’s not just Al Gore anymore. With Television networks, politicians, car companies, amongst others all jumping on the bandwagon, it should come as no surprise that artists are also caught up in what is hopefully a lasting trend.

While art and industry may sometimes make strange bedfellows, ROJO, the Barcelona-based artist consortium, have found themselves a muse in the new smart fortwo, the fuel efficient two-passenger vehicle from smart, a collaboration between Penske and Mercedes Benz. The product of this inspiration is the latest issue of ROJO’s coveted design books entitled ROJO(R)fortwo. The special issue contains artwork from the likes of Catalina Estrada, MWM, Deanne Cheuk, Yoshi Sodeoka, Tofer, Alex Prager, Friends with You, Ben Summers, Dalek, Holly Stevenson, Chet Purtilar, Jemma Hostetler, Meomi, Yoshi Tajima, Evgeny Kiselev, Vanessa da Silva, Bruno 9li, Cristiano Trindade, Todd Tourso, Amir H. Fallah, Justine Ashbee and Sergei Sviatchenko.

If all of that artistic firepower isn’t enough to get you excited, then perhaps the special offer will do the trick. To celebrate the launch of the new smart fortwo in USA; ROJO is offering a 25% discount on the two special printed issues dedicated to smart two special printed issues dedicated to smart. If taking advantage of that offer doesn’t make you feel brainy, we don’t know what will.