Art of Gravity

There is a significant graffiti tradition in South America most especially in Brazil. Within Brazil, Sao Paulo is generally considered to be the current centre of inspiration for many graffiti artists worldwide.

Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich graffiti scene...[earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration." Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities." Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of Sao Paulo today and 1970s New York." The "sprawling metropolis," of Sao Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti;" Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment...[and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples," and to "Brazil's chronic poverty," as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture." In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently." Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised," that is South American graffiti art.