graffiti Archives - eatrio.net

#EatRioLoves: The playful street art of Odylo Falcão

30/06/2022/2 Comments/in Musings

I arrived in Rio in 2010, and instantly fell in love with the city’s street art. Before long, I could recognise pieces by favourite artists such as Lelo and Pia Transborda on the streets around Santa Teresa and Botafogo where I used to work. In 2013, when Eat Rio morphed from a simple blog into Eat Rio Food Tours, I started spending more time in Laranjeiras, and that’s when I first noticed the artwork of Odylo Falcão.

Although there are many styles and subject matters used in Rio’s street art scene, Odylo Falcão’s simple, cheery illustrations seem quite apart from any other artist working here. The colourful animals and objects seem like they’ve come straight out of a children’s picture book. I haven’t seen him make reference to either, but some of his characters remind me of Richard Scarry and also Where the Wild Things Are.

Anonimundo – Pegheads and Washing Lines

25/08/2014/6 Comments/in Art and culture

I first became aware of Anonimundo when I visited Pedra do Sal – Rio’s favourite free samba venue (Monday nights). I was having a bit of a look around when I noticed a brilliant piece of art on a broken down old wall (see above). This chirpy little clothes peg figure was playing the guitar whose string was doubling as a clothes line holding shirts spelling out the word ‘samba’. I loved it straight away.

It wasn’t until quite a while later that I saw another piece of work that was clearly by the same artist. This time I was walking the streets of Lapa during one of my Food Tours, when I saw this:

Photo Post: Mujique-se!

27/02/2014/4 Comments/in Musings

Mujique-se – ‘Mujica yourself’.

Is there a more popular national leader serving today than José Mujica of Uruguay? I’m sure we’ve all heard of his headline grabbing legalisation of marijuana (for which he was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize), but did you also know that during the 1960s and 70s he was a guerilla leader who served 14 years in prison, including 2 years at the bottom of a well?

But probably more than his progressive policies, his popularity seems to be due in large part to his lack of apparent interest in personal wealth and its trappings. In a continent where those in power are notorious for their associations with corruption and organised crime, how refreshing to see a national leader pass up the opportunity to live in an opulent presidential palace in favour of living on his wife’s modest farm; a leader who routinely looks reassuringly dishevelled, drives a beaten up old VW Beetle and reluctantly accepts a skeleton staff of just 2 body guards.

Wouldn’t it feel like progress if a few more world leaders took the advice in the graffiti above and made themselves more like Mujica?

São Paulo – it grows on you

06/02/2014/12 Comments/in Musings

Last weekend Mrs Eat Rio and I went to São Paulo for some quality time away, just the two of us – no friends, no family, no chores or computers. This was my sixth or seventh visit to Brazil’s largest city and I loved it! In fact each time I visit São Paulo I like it more than the last.

São Paulo doesn’t immediately hit you as being a beautiful (or even a particularly nice) place to be. On my first couple of visits the weather was misty, cold and grey, the buildings were mostly nondescript and covered in pixação and the people seemed to lack the easy-going, friendly outlook I had grown used to in Rio. Read more