Artist Blog : Eduardo Kobra

The kiss

Mount Rushmore

Eduardo Kobra was born into a low income neighborhood of São Paulo in 1976. At the young age of 12 years old, he started missing school and joined a group called "Hip Hop," which lead him to street life. He then joined a graffiti group, which ignited his passion for graffiti art. His parents decided he needed to be taken away from the streets when he was expelled from school; therefore, they moved to Bauru and sent him back to school.

Even after his move, he turned to street art to express himself. The major turning point in his career as an artist transpired after his arrest when he was asked by the judge to paint a mural in the police precent as a form of sentencing.

Kobra’s murals are a combination of different techniques including painting with brushes, airbrush and aerosol cans. He uses bright colors and bold lines in order to develop the kaleidoscope theme that is prevalent in his murals. Employing the technique of using repetitive square and triangle shapes, checkered patterns, and various texture, lines, and shading, Kobra is able to create life like images of famous historical figures.

The dancer

In an interview with Artmiami.tv, Eduardo explains “My work nowadays is based on the use of old images of the cities I am painting. I visit museums, check the books and from there I come up with some images from the 20s or the 30s that show the architecture of the city. The idea of the murals is to recreate a city that no longer exists, do people who didn’t live in that time can see it and those who did live back then can have a moment of memory or nostalgia.”

A few of the painting included in Kobra's 'Peace' Exhibit (Rome, Italy)

My favorite of his work is the 2014 “Peace” Exhibit, in which he created an entire set of large-scale paintings depicting portraits of the worlds most impassioned advocates for peace. He clearly displayed the genuine characteristics that each of these individuals possess.