Nunca
“Francisco Rodrigues da Silva also known as “Nunca” is a Brazilian artist who uses a graffiti technique to create images that confront modern urban Brazil with its native past. His name Nunca (“Never” in Portuguese) is an affirmation of his determination not to be bound by cultural or psychological constraints.[1] Nunca is one of the most famous street artists of his generation. (…) Born in São Paulo, Nunca began his career at the age of 12 as a member of a gang spraying pichações – a Brazilian alternative tag – on walls in Itaquera, the poor neighborhood in eastern São Paulo where the family lived. He then developed his own style, a mix of colors and lines putting together Brazilian traditions and contemporary claims.[ After the family moved to Aclimação, in the south-central part of the city, he made new friends and developed an interest in grafite, a more consciously artistic form. He has described this as a natural progression – he had always liked drawing. He started to produce striking, intensely coloured figures inspired by indigenous Brazilian culture that attracted first local and then foreign attention. Starting to receive invitations to exhibit in Europe, he began to paint canvases and produce sculptures. Although enjoying his work on the street he was keen to produce more elaborate work and saw this as another natural progression. Nunca’s practice is deeply rooted in the urban environment and attuned to the history of his native Brazil. His art challenges cultural conventions by exploring the modes through which contemporary society functions. Nunca investigates social, politic and economic realities to question mass consumerism, whether it is material or cultural, and its driving mechanism.”
