For more than 20 years, Paulo Ito has been a major figure of Sao Paulo's westside street art environment. He has been depicting a multitude of realistic or whimsical characters staged in scenes mixing humor with social awareness. Paulo Ito could easily be related to the Social Realism movement, but prefers to be considered as an artist who cares about his community.
As Batman who roams the streets at night to fight the villains, Paulo Ito paints them to deliver educative, at times sarcastic, but always humanist messages.
In 2014, at the dawn of the FIFA World Cup - a panel highlighting the persisting poverty affecting millions of Brazilian families went viral and was relayed by medias from across the world - gathering an audience of tens of millions. Surprised by the mediatic impact it had, Paulo Ito reminded that his activism was toward the protection of his community and people - which he had always been doing since sprays became his favorite partners.
Following this mediatic exposure, Paulo Ito contributed in 2016 to the Greenpeace "Salve o Tapajos" project and participated to the Moscow International Street Art Biennial and Memorie Urbane Festival in Gaeta, Italy (2017).
Paulo Ito honors his roots and cannot disconnect his art to his people about which he aims to raise awareness and social consciousness - and always find new ideas to surprise and educate the audience.
His work has been exhibited in
- Shopping Cidade Sao Paulo (2021)
- Acervo St Paul Gallery, Miami (2019)
- A7MA Galeria (2019, 2017)
- Disjuntor Mooca (2017)
- Galeria Verve (2016)
- Neurotitan Gallery, Berlin (2013)
- Expo 2005, Tokyo & Aichi (2005)
- Art Loft, Los Angeles (2007)
- Coletivo Galeria (2008)
- MuBE (2008)
- Galerie Miscelânea Spain (2009)
- Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art, LA (2007)
Commercial collaborations with
- Instituto de Artes Unicamp (2020)
- Festival DIVerCidades (2019)
- Ambev (2018)
- Greenpeace (2016)
- Smirnoff (2010)
- Centro Cultural de Espanha (2009)
- Reserva Indigena Tekoa Pora (2019)
- Cataki (2019)
- Sanofi (2017)
- Viva Rio Pinheiros (2015)
- Museu do Futebol (2010)
- Unilever (2002)
Media coverage
- Washington Post
- Daily Telegraph
- Slate.com
- BBC
- Fuji TV
- Vice
- Rue 89
- Canal +
- Europe 1
- Eurosport
- Al Jazeera
- CNN
- Huffington Post
- El Periodico
- El Tiempo
- The Guardian
Prizes he has won
- 1st Prize - Prêmio Criança - Bienal Internacional de Quadrinhos do Rio de Janeiro (1991)
- 1st Prize with Tikka Mezaros - Ellus Graffiti Deluxe (2004)
- 1st Prize - Street Art - Fundação Bunge (2019)
