Local Expert
Lucy Bryson
I was born in rainy Manchester, UK, but made my escape to sunny Rio de Janeiro in 2006. Since then it's been hard to keep me away from the city, although I've also travelled elsewhere in Brazil and…
I was born in rainy Manchester, UK, but made my escape to sunny Rio de Janeiro in 2006. Since then it's been hard to keep me away from the city, although I've also travelled elsewhere in Brazil and South America. I'm a trained journalist and editor and have managed to fund my trips through combining my twin passions of travelling and writing - recent writing credits include updating chapters for Fodor's Brazil, Footprint Brazil and Footprint South American Handbook. I live high on a hillside in Santa Teresa - Rio's 'arty' district, and my one complaint is that I never seem to get time to visit the beach! Despite my lack of tanning time, I love Rio, and and have no intentions of returning to my wet and windy home city any time soon!
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Plantio Crew make their mark on Lapa
Nobody could accuse Rio's buzzing Lapa district of being anything other than colourful, and this month the colours are brighter than ever thanks to an exhibition of 'street art' (graffiti, by any other name) by local collective Plantio Crew. Within the confines of the ever-lively Estrela da Lapa venue (head here at weekends to catch sets from some of the city's hippest DJs), the exhibition showcases images of Plantio Crew's bold, inventive and sometimes provocative street art emblazoned across the city.
Street art is something that is taken extremely seriously in Rio, and few can fail to admire the skill and the imagination involved. According to Plantio Crew: "The place of each work is strategically considered before the painting begins. This is interactive art - to beautify ugly streets, to brighten a little the gray aspect of the city, and break the monotony of the streets. The spray can becomes an extension of the artist's body - through it the graffiti artist expresses their emotion, liberates their adrenaline and marks an area of the street as their artistic territory."
Want to see for yourself? Head along to Estrela da Lapa, at Avenida Mem de Sá, 69 .