The work is called San Paolo, Desenhos e prosa da cidade (San Paolo, Drawings and prose of the city). Published by Publifolha and sponsored by company CA Brasil, in the area of technology, the 176-page book is being sold in bookstores all over the country.

The artist, as journalist Gilberto Dimenstein wrote in the preface of the book, rediscovers São Paulo. "When reanalyzing the history of this city, especially at the moment of rediscovery, the drawings by Vincenzo should be among the main registers," he wrote.

In Scarpellini's work, readers should also find scenes of the center of the city, where the artist lived and which he loved. Building Copan (designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer) and Itália, a symbol of the city, are among the sites depicted. Added to them may be Pacaembu stadium, Congonhas Airport, and other important buildings for São Paulo, like the Louvre and Bretagne, also in the central region.

Alongside the architecture and large constructions are characters of the everyday life, like the owner of a second hand bookshop and her cat, the caretaker of a building and characters like renowned architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha.

All the drawings in the book were initially drawn between 2000 and 2006 and, originally, published in the Urbanidade column, in newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, in the Daily section. They are images of the city, situations carefully chosen and lapidated by the artist – or simply "the impression of an instant, a chronicle of the moment", as written by art critic Jorge Coli.

Alongside the drawings are four-line long texts, true poems in prose. The artist's own style that marked his collaboration with the newspaper. The drawings, sensitive, intelligent and daring, contrasted with the pages of the paper, full of news about the city of São Paulo. And readers noticed the importance of such contrast, "a breath for the page", as the artist liked to say.

Among the sceneries identified by the foreign eye of the artist is restaurant Almanara. The following text accompanies a drawing of the Arab downtown eatery:

"It is said that the restaurant arose where there used to be a night club. The music is still in plain evidence. The theme of the decoration, on the floor and engraved walls, in the mirrors and in the counter greatly pleased Matisse: lozenges. They have a sonorous cadence that absorbs and dominates the space, reverberating in the curved woods. It is the 1950s in great shape."

Vincenzo Scarpellini had natural and discrete elegance. He loved things intensely, gleefully and substantially. He spoke lightly, and enjoyed sharing what interested him. He lived in Brazil for ten years and was passionate about the city of São Paulo. Graduated in Journalism and Design in Italy, he taught at Luiss University, in Rome, and at the Instituto Europeo di Design, in São Paulo.

He was also the director of newspaper Il Manifesto, an important Italian publication. In 1996, he adopted Brazil and, before working for Folha de S. Paulo, he redesigned the appearance of magazine Manchete, in Rio de Janeiro, and developed the graphic concept of publications A&D and Nova Beleza, by publishing house Abril, in São Paulo.

As an artist, Scarpellini promoted four individual exhibitions. During his life, his works were exhibited at Caixa Cultural (2002 and 2005), in São Paulo, at Palazzo dei Capitani (2005), in Italy, and in the exhibition area of restaurant Panino Giusto (2001), also in São Paulo.

After his death, at the age of 41, in July 2006, there were two posthumous exhibitions in the city. In 2007, at Salve Jorge bar, in honor of the artist and more recently, Quaderni di Viaggio, in January 2009, at Caixa Cultural. The works exhibited were drawings of the city of São Paulo, nudes and drawings of trips.

Scarpellini also has another two drawing books published: Trânsito (Traffic) and Vidas (Lives – both by Ateliê Editorial, 2005). He also has works for children published by Harbra.

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San Paolo, Desenhos e prosa da cidade
Author: Vincenzo Scarpellini
Publishing house: Publifolha
Sponsorship: CA Brasil, Lei Roaunet
Price: 39.90 reais (US$ 19.70)

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The pictures by Cavalli, which are painted with acrylic on canvas, have already been sold to art galleries, hotels, homes and shops in New York and Miami. Still this year, the artist has been invited to exhibit in Paris, France, where he should present three works.

Cavalli was born in 1956, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, and has been living in São Paulo, in the southeast of the country, since 1965. In the beginning, he worked with painting and drawing, developing the technique of Pointillism, which consists of colored dots that make up an image in the eye of the observer. He studied at the IADíŠ Technical Communications Drawing School and graduated in Visual Communications from Armando ílvares Penteado College (Faap).

Cavalli is of Italian descent, but his wife's family is Arab. "I am already familiar with the culture," said the painter, who became fascinated by Dubai after having seen a television program about the emirate and talking to his lawyer and agent, Paulo Rossi. "I think it is a market that has potential and would be interesting to exhibit in," stated the artist.

In São Paulo he has already had exhibitions at the My Guest Space, Pitanga, Astrolábio Ateliê, Galeria 8 Rosas and at the Brazilian British center.

According to Cavalli's agent, even before promoting an exhibition in Dubai, there are already purchase orders for the artist's work. "We have orders from the United Arab Emirates, but we are currently analyzing them," said Rossi. Cavalli's works may be seen on the artist's site or on British site Saatchi-Gallery, through which some international orders are placed.

According to Rossi, the exhibition in Dubai, which should take place in March 2009, is almost closed, but now the idea is to try to see whether there is a possibility to take the exhibition to at least another two emirates. The Arab country should receive between 10 and 15 pictures, of sizes ranging from 50×50 cm (19.7×19.7 inches) to 160×120 cm (63×47 inches).

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Luiz Cavalli
Site: www.luizcavalli.com.br

Paulo Rossi
Tel: (+55 11) 3063-4194
Email: paulovisani@terra.com.br

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Two panels by Brazilian artist HeloÀ­sa Crocco decorate the entry hall of Hilton Creek, in Dubai. HeloÀ­sa produces paintings with wooden textures and was invited by the Uruguayan architect who designed the hotel, Carlos Ott, to collaborate in decorating the place.

All the works of art by the designer, who has her studio in Porto Alegre, capital of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, are made by applying small pieces of wood to panels.

The pictures put up in Hilton Creek, a five star hotel that is five kilometers away from the Dubai World Trade Centre, are two meters wide and ten meters tall, and were made out of raw wood.

Carlos Ott became interested in the work developed by the artist after seeing it exhibited in a restaurant in the city of Belo Horizonte, capital of the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

The architect is known for having designed the Bastille Opera House, inaugurated in Paris, France, in 1989.

The works of art made for the hotel in the Emirates, shipped to the country about two years ago, are the only ones that Heloí­sa Crocco has sold to an Arab country.

The designer states, however, that she wishes to participate in exhibitions so as to further publicise her work in the region. She has already had over 30 international exhibitions and has sold in France, Holland, Germany, and Uruguay.

Heloí­sa’s work is technically defined as wall design. According to the artist, what attracts the greatest attention to her work on the foreign market is the environmental appeal.

The pieces of wood used in the murals are pieces of wood left after the setting up of fences. “The new order on the planet is re-use,” she said.

Handcraft and Design

She is known in Rio Grande do Sul for joining handcraft and design. Heloí­sa has already participated in various projects for the sponsoring of handcraft in poor communities.

One of them was developed in the city of Ouro Preto, a historical city in Minas Gerais. Heloí­sa coordinated workshops that made it possible for local artisans to supply products made out of soapstone to retail chain Tok & Stok.

In Rio Grande do Sul, the designer has participated in project Mão Gaúcha, for revitalization of local handcraft.

The objective has always been to make the artisans use their own environment as the theme for their works.

In Ouro Preto, for example, instead of producing Buddhas and elephants, global symbols, the communities have stared making products in the Baroque style, on which the entire architecture of the city is based.

“The artists have noticed that they can use the local fauna and flora for handcraft.”

Heloí­sa developed similar work outside the country, in Uruguay. She was called, in 1997, to re-guide the work of wood artists who operated in cooperatives.

“The group was losing market due to globalisation,” she stated.

The designer’s mission was to make the artisans bring local identity to their work, which ended up occurring through exploration of the Uruguayan fauna and flora and historic elements in the country.

Forms for Wood

The artist called her style of use of combinations of wooden shapes “Topomorphosis project”. That is, the act of giving shape (morphosis) to the top of a tree.

The project, which was born after a visit to the Amazon in 1986, was the theme of an individual exhibition by the artist in Osaka, Japan, in 1990.

At the beginning of next year, Heloí­sa will officially inaugurate her studio in Vila Conceição, in Porto Alegre, with the release of a new collection of wood applied to paper, cloth and pottery. The studio was entirely made out of wood.

Heloí­sa is graduated in arts at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Ufrgs) and specialized at the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS).

She also took courses at Cardiff’s College of Art in London, England, and taught textile design at the University of Los Andes, in Colombia.

ANBA – Brazil-Arab News Agency