GaleRio is a platform of urbana art in Rio de Janeiro and also a gallery

Large multicultural cities around the World has been overcoming misconceptions and accepted Urban Art willingly. Examples of the trend are Berlin, New York, and London. Rio de Janeiro is in line with the tendency and created GaleRio, the first urban art cultural platform of the city.

Project is ambitious. It starts with GaleRio Space, which is dedicated exclusively to the genre exhibiting graffiti artists and carioca urban art. It is located at the second floor of a house built in 1879, whose façade has been named city’s cultural landmark in Botafogo, Southern area.

There is also the plan of covering some 40 km of walls that protect the tracks of Rio’s Subway Line 2, linking the central district of São Cristóvão to the distant Pavuna. One of the first pannels was concluded at Del Castilho station still in 2014. Other works followed at Inhaúma, Triagem, Colégio, Coelho Neto stations and at Carioca district, where it was created also green handicraft courses.

Photo: Alexandre Macieira | Riotur

In 2015, Institute EixoRio, the actions coordinator, made a deal to bring color to the entrances of a tunnel joining Botafogo and Copacabana districts. More than 20 artists were responsible to paint 1,500m2 of walls in the accesses of the tunnel using realism. Since the entrances are downward ramps they were painted in blue tones and decored with subacquatic animals and plants.

The deal was the first time the office responsible for urban maintanance used a portion of its budget on paints to be used in art instead of covering the graffitis.

To be an incentive of art in the city is the main objective of the project, giving space to the part of the population who are creative and eager to reoccupy decadent urban areas, unveiling stories that were forgotten through murals.

Photo: Alexandre Macieira | Riotur

GaleRio instated March 27th as Graffitis Day in Rio giving it a boast in the art market. The public gallery in Botafogo has hosted works of more than 100 artists made in many different techniques in 30 to 40-day long exhibits. The place also promotes debates, meetings and lectures on art devoted to bring the artistic community together.

There are also other segments of Street Art being estimulated, like sculptures and furniture made of junk and recycled material. The moviment was created in 2014 and has been fed since then by a new generation of artists that take possession of the city like in the Piskate case, a giant skate sculpture that was created at Praça XV as a skateboarding rink for radical maneuvers.

GaleRio Space is at Rua São Clemente, 117. Admittance is free and is open Mon-Fri, from 10AM to 6PM.