Claudio Ethos

Claudio Ethos (BR) was born by the name Claudio Rafael in 1982 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The gifted young man studied for two years at a college for visual arts.

However, he was not in a financial position to finish his degree. He left a formal education to work as a painter, doing the art works he so much loved on the side.

Ethos is now a well known mural artist, with amazing works all around the world. He is also famous for his amazing skills with the ballpoint pen, as the pictures we have on display at www.sundero-gallery.com. His work is often surreal, with twisted manipulations of images and landscapes.

Ethos has been working with graffiti since the 90’s, and began spray painting around the age of 15. He is influenced by the Sao Paolo tag hand style murals, but has developed a unique and easily recognizable style.

Ethos uses a minimal color palette – either only black and white or black and white with one added color. His motives and characters depict emotional and spiritual states of mind. He often describes humans fighting to survive; anxious, disconnected, twisted and invaded by forces beyond their control. And even if some of his works are on the more optimistic side; dreamy or even humorous, it is fair to say that the leading motive in Ethos works is mans struggle against inhuman systems and brutal living conditions.

Ethos prefers to work with large dimensions, some times up till 30 meters tall. The scale of it makes it fascinating to know that the base of his huge and meticulous murals are small ballpoint drawings like the ones we present in ArtLego.

Not all of his drawings are sketches for larger works though, most of them are art works in their own right.

Ethos have had solo exhibitions with drawings and paintings both in Italy, France, Netherlands, Austria, The States and Paraguay. He has also been represented at group exhibitions all over the world.

Claudio Ethos currently lives between Sao Paolo and LA.

A MONTH IN NORWAY

“The month of may 2015 I stayed in a lovely city called Bryne, Rogaland area in Norway. It was a project of artistic residence managed from Bryne Art Society.

Spent all month there, was great. I could taste a bit of the life/culture from locals, make some friends and paint this building by the mill. In the project was included a group show with 2 other  Norwegian artists, Atle Ostrem and Anette Moi.

I’m very thankful and glad to be part of this experience. Thanks to Karin Sunderø, Magda Line, David, Pobel ..and many others for all the support and friendship.

The city of Stavanger wall was curated by Karin Sunderø, for Gosen School (left picture). Great reception from all the students there, was nice days spend in Stavanger hosted at Frida Hansens hus, who gently give me an apartment to stay there, and special thanks to Karin Sunderø for all the logistics and hospitality in Norway.”

After Norway our friend Claudio Ethos reached Germany where he worked his magic on the streets of Dortmund and Koln at CityLeaks Street Art Festival.

The Brazilian muralist continues to develop in his practice, and make uniquely different work using a minimal colour palette.