RAFAEL CALAZANS PIERRI.HIGHRAFF - Graffiti from São Paulo

Swarovski Kristallwelten Wattens

Graffiti is a collective term for privately applied images or slogans on public surfaces used for the most varied of purposes. The last decades saw the development of a vital art scene in the emergent Brazilian metropolises, which is primarily based in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, whereby "Street Art" is rendered a special role, as it is accessible to all social stratums and intensely interwoven with Brazilian city life. A highly aesthetic, artful form of Graffiti was simultaneously established - painters such as Herbert Baglione, the twins Os Gemeos or young Rafael Calazans Pierri alias Highraff are now also known in Europe. Swarovski's Crystal Worlds have now dedicated a solo exhibition to the latter.

Rafael Calazans Pierri was born in São Paulo in 1977 and caused furore under his pseudonym when he was 17. While his colleagues still maintained the traditional forms of "Street Art" expression, Highraff had already discovered his unmistakable style, which is unusually intensely characterised by natural motives, organic forms and psychedelic elements. Klimt, Mucha, but also the French comic illustrator Moebius, the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi and Dutch graphic designer M.C. Escher count as his artistic sources of inspiration. He made his international breakthrough in 1997 - since then he has realised numerous contracts in Brazil, the US and in Europe.

Highraff's Graffiti is always an expressive fusion between graphic perfection, clearly delineated comic aesthetics and unusual colouring precision – sometimes he transfers his Graffiti to objects and transforms them to sculptures. The exhibits in the Crystal Worlds mirror not only the Graffiti artist's world of thought but also the urban Brazilian attitude to life with all its polarities.

Vernissage: Thursday, 5 February 2009, 7.30 pm
Exhibition period until 31 March 2009

press release (pdf)

picture gallery
interview Rafael Calazans Pierri