It’s hard to forget the name of the one who marked the walls of Sao Paulo with his countless paintings. Rafael Sliks came to prominence in the early 2000s through the practice of pixaçao, a form of ultra-violent conquest of the urban territory of Sao Paulo by letter, before moving more recently to graffiti, a more peaceful form of expression.

Through the journey of the Brazilian artist, it is the passage from an uncompromising vandal art to contemporary urban art that is told and questioned. The feeling of revolt, the call for freedom; original engines of the artist's creative process, are constantly renewing themselves in their forms.

Arranged freely and soon confused, the writings of his name give birth to restless, sometimes chaotic compositions. The letters of "Sliks" form an unraveling intertwining. The repetition creates unity, and the spray paint knots give the impression of forming abstract interior landscapes. His paintings are the result of a calligraphic process that seems endless, obsessive, although constantly changing. And, by dint of heaps of letters, the canvas and the wall disappear. Rafael Sliks transforms flat surfaces into deep spaces where the eye is lost. By thus defying motif and material, his frescoes encourage us to question the power of walls. The social claim can be guessed, because it is this which always motivates creation...