Sao Paulo born and raised artist Fabio Oliveira aka Cranio “skull” started covering the grey walls of his hometown in 1998. His work is marked by a great sense of humour and is inspired by little details that surround him in his daily life such as traffic jam, police abuse, worldcup, security, poverty and graffiti lettering – Cartoons and Salvador Dali are some of his greatest references.

Next Saturday will be the opening of the Barcelona Culture World, and Cranio would like to invite you all to his new show where he will exhibit some of his work.  It’s also a great opportunity to go see his new mural freshly painted in Poblenou neighbourhood at Calle De la Agricultura corner.

We had the chance to talk with him about his hometown in our last issue. Here’s our interview:

How much does Sao Paulo, or Brazil ingeneral influence your art?

It’s the city where I was born, but it’s not only this city that inspires me. I guess it’s more about what I contemplate concerning: corruption,the environment, consumerism… health issues are not only going on in Brazil but worldwide and the situation gets worse everyday.

What are your top 5 places to go in Sao Paulo?

There are many places I could tell about in Sao Paulo. It’s a vast city, but I would recommend Paulista Avenue, Vila Madalena with a lot of restaurants, pubs and galleries. The MAM Museum is at Ibirapuera Park and maybe you should try to sneak into some old factories where I love to do graffiti.

Are you going to do a special piece for the World Cup?

Over the last year I’ve been working on a few paintings. The World Cup is something everyone in Brazil would to love to have, because we are crazy about soccer, but I’m sure you’ve heard everyone here is doing their own parade against the government, now that it is clear that they have broken one more promise to make security, health, education and public transportation better to all of our people. Now people see that they only built big soccer stadiums and the rest of all the other projects just stayed in their plans. There is no investment at all to make our country a little bit better.

Have you ever traveled to the Amazon and encountered indigenous tribes?

Yes, there are many tribes but not only in Amazonia, also in the Northeast and the center or south of Brazil. I love being there and it’s also in my background - a mix of indigenous people, Portuguese and African. I love the drawings they do with ink made by clay, rocks etc. Also their traditions and things they do with their body, their embellishments and headdresses made out of feathers from birds like peacocks or macaws. 

Cranio vs. Ronald McDonald.

This is the symbol of consumerism to me, agrobusiness destroys our land. It’s a huge brand that has created this character to make kids believe their food is cool and good for their health. I use this symbol to criticise two things, one is the omnipresent consumerism and the other is corruption.