Ismaël Wagner de Lima (Smaël, dit)

Born in 1979 in Rio de Janeiro, Smaël is one of Brazil's best-known street artists and spokesman for the Carioca Graffiti movement. Discovering street art in 1998, the young artist practised his style for a year before covering his first wall in 1999, asserting an already highly personal style that set him apart from other artists of the time, who were more inclined to tag. His colorful characters, sometimes bordering on abstraction, are inspired by the colors of his native country and blend in perfectly. So much so that in 2008, Smaël pledged to respect Brazil's architectural heritage in exchange for the government's decriminalization of street art. The HausSon gallery organized his first solo exhibition in 2003, marking his entry into the contemporary art market. He took advantage of this momentum to experiment with new media: canvases, sculptures, objects, clothing... Today, his work is represented both on Brazilian streets and in galleries around the world.