Catalogue from the exhibition:
André Saraiva (03 Jul. 2014 > 12 Oct. 2014)

About the exhibition:
"André Saraiva, an artist of Portuguese origin, first began his career in the 1980s on the streets of Paris, when he began painting his graffiti on the walls of the city. In the early 1990s, Saraiva created an "alter-ego" named Mr. A – a joyful, energetic stick-figure character with a round head and big smile, who began invading the storefronts, metro stations, postboxes and abandoned buildings of cities across Europe. As Mr. A's travels grew to a global scale, subtle changes to his appearance and attire – a top hat, an X-sha­ped eye, wings, and even a female counterpart – gave depth to Saraiva's character. Never losing his original graphic language, André Saraiva has been exploring other artistic areas, including installations, painting, serigraphy, the creative direction of the L’Officiel Hommes magazine and, more recently, edition, short-films and video.

To paraphrase Andy Warhol (“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working in art and good business is the best art”), André Saraiva is presently one of the major worldwide figures in graffiti and a global artist to whom art is a commodity, entertainment and enjoyment. Owner of the nightclub Le Baron in London, New York, Tokyo and Paris, and Hotel Amour (Paris), he has collaborated with leading multinational brands such as Louis Vuitton, Levi’s, Moet & Chandon, Chloé, Chanel, Belvedere, Fendi, Cartier or Givenchy, an example of how marginal, transgressive and irreverent graffiti language has been appropriated by the system and the institutions. The result is a universe of objects and products where his ironic, uncompromising and sexual language, sometimes subversive, with bright and contrasting colours, makes the difference. This does not mean he left the streets, where he still let his mark with the Love graffiti.

His work has been recognized and exhibited in several contemporary art museums and galleries with solo exhibitions where segments of his work are displayed, as the Dream Concerts or his Andrépolis architectures. Highlight for Palais Tokyo (Paris), Maison Kitsuné (Tokyo), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Circle Culture Gallery (Hamburg), Anonymous Gallery (Mexico City). At MUDE, André Saraiva’s exhibition, with almost 200 pieces, is conceived and designed as a large installation on the third floor. The different artistic expressions he has explored emerge in a complementary way, emphasizing his drawing and making known his work that goes deeper into pop language and borrows the notions of spectacle, of art with a playful sense and the contamination between high art and post-modernist pop art.

Accompanying the exhibition, a profusely illustrated catalogue, with Bárbara Coutinho, Glenn O’Brien and Olivier Zham essays. In addition, André Saraiva will paint seven white surfboards designed and produced by the Portuguese companies Semente, Polen, Micasurfboards, X-Cult, Jobsite, SPOSurf, Ahua, which will afterwards integrate the MUDE collection."

Editorial concept and coordination Bárbara Coutinho
Institucional text Catarina Vaz Pinto
Esaays Bárbara Coutinho, Glenn O'Brien, Olivier Zahm
Graphic design Paula Guimarães

Publisher: MUDE
Language: bilingual Portuguese / English.
Pages: 128.
Size: 21 x 15 x 1 cm.