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Caligrapixo

(1989 - São Paulo) Lives and works in São Paulo.

Caligrapixo is the name that the pixador (graffiti writer) Kamikaze (KMKZ) found to name himself. Born in 1989, in São Paulo, where he lives and works. It is worth remembering that calligraphy, the exercise of beautiful writing, comes from the Greek radicals kallos, which means beautiful, and grapheîn, to write. Almost all civilizations with writing practiced calligraphy with variations, both in the West and in the East. Learning calligraphy — which was the basis of the painter's training in Asia — seems to be quite close to what young people do today when they invest in the walls of cities.

Caligrapixo draws his mystical poems without associating specific themes. He presents us with the repetition of his writing and his internal states, which are translated into a flood of sensations and the forgetting of himself in a mysterious presence. These writings are often a strong symbol of unification or, even more, of distinction. They can be simple, illegible pseudo-calligraphies, but they mark an identity or approach an almost spiritual dimension. He does everything so that we can neither read nor understand his calligraphy — which thus gradually becomes an increasingly abstract painting. According to the artist, we find all this in his interventions in public spaces. He wants to almost disappear, to have a chameleon work. It is up to the viewer to find and imagine.

"PIXAÇÃO" (tagging), written with "X" or in the abbreviated form as "PIXO", is an urban intervention movement that emerged in the early 1980s in São Paulo. It was born naturally, without influence from any other street culture from the rest of the world, and stands out for its unique calligraphy. While the whole world was influenced by New York graffiti, with its rounded letters, here, the letters of the pixadores became increasingly straight, to accompany — in a way — the architecture of the city of São Paulo, with a landscape full of buildings. These letters are also known in the rest of the world as straight tag. Despite being an underground movement, pixadores are very well organized. There are weekly meetings, parties and even protests organized by them. Pixação is done by young people and adults who have never stopped writing their names. Each one has their personal motivation to repeat this name throughout the city — some as a form of protest, others as a release valve, for recognition by others, for personal satisfaction, adrenaline.

Pixação also stands out for the way the pixador occupies the city in all its possibilities: on walls, facades, rooftops, on top of windows, climbing outside buildings and risking their lives to put their name on the street. Pixadores act alone, in groups, day or night, with spray paint, with paint and roller. The choice of place can be planned or happen on the spur of the moment. Some pixam monuments, churches, schools, cemeteries and hospitals. There is nothing to stop them. There is a great freedom within pixação. There are no rules — the only rule is respect: no one can write their name over the name of another.

In recent years, the typography of pixação has undergone enormous appropriation by typographers, advertisers and artists. Those who appropriate this calligraphy see in it great aesthetic and visual potential. When talking about his works, Caligrapixo states that his work is an artistic representation of urban calligraphy — specifically the calligraphy of pixação — and that he has been doing this type of work since 2011. Participating in the movement since 1996 with the name “KAMIKAZE”, he says that the work on the streets, as an urban intervention, seeks to follow the standard of the city's architecture as much as possible and merge with its landscape. Through an in-depth study and research of the typography of São Paulo's pixação, Caligrapixo developed four distinct alphabets. They are completely different from what is seen on the streets, as they are very stylized, but they maintain the essence of pixação typography.

Although it belongs to the universe of the streets of São Paulo, Caligrapixo also has the desire to dedicate part of his work to an artistic reflection that he develops in the silence of his studio. At Rosewood São Paulo, the artist presents his latest paintings, this time on canvases of smaller formats. He wanted to get off the walls, look at other languages and contexts, but always keeping pixação calligraphy as a basis. The colors he uses — black, gray and white — are also the main colors of the city of São Paulo. The works exhibited at Rosewood São Paulo demonstrate how Caligrapixo, even deeply linked to the universe of the streets and surroundings of São Paulo, has never hesitated to position himself as a painter as well.

Learn more: https://www.instagram.com/caligrapixo/

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