Francisco Rodrigues da Silva

Francisco Rodrigues da Silva (* 1983) also known as "Nunca" is a Brazilian graffiti who uses Native Brazilian themes in his art. His artist name "Nunca" means "Never" in Portuguese.

Career Born in São Paulo, Nunca began his career at the age of 12 as a member of a gang spraying pichações - a Brazilian alternative tag - on walls in Itaquera, the poor neighborhood in eastern São Paulo where the family lived. He then developed his own style, a mix of colors and lines putting together Brazilian traditions and contemporary claims. His influence grew worldwide after being the youngest artist exhibited in a major show at the Tate Modern museum in London in 2008. He has worked closely with other major figures on the São Paulo graffiti scene including Os Gêmeos (the artist twins Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) and Otavio Pandolfo's wife, Nina. thumb

23 de Maio expressway Wall Having developed their reputation in São Paulo Nunca and the Pandolfos were invited to participate in a street-art exhibition at the Tate Modern Gallery in London that led to a significant re-evaluation of their work by their home city. Following the introduction by the Mayor of São Paulo Gilberto Kassab of the "Cidade Limpa" ("Clean City") law aimed at eliminating forms of visual pollution, including graffiti, an official clean-up campaign led to many images being lost and others damaged. A 680-meter mural painted by the Pandolfos, Nunca and Otavio Pandolfo's wife Nina on retaining walls along the 23 de Maio expressway was half-obliterated with gray paint despite having been officially approved. Recognition abroad of the significance of the artists' work stimulated a public discussion of what constituted art which led to the creation of a registry of street art to be preserved by the city of São Paulo. and in the UK at Tate Modern, the first major display of street art at a public museum in London. The brickwork of the Tate Modern's external walls was decorated with paintings 15 metres high by the artists featured in the exhibition, the Pandolfo twins and Nunca, Blu from Bologna, the Parisian artist JR, the New York collaborative group Faile and Sixeart from Barcelona. and Art from the Streets at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore in 2018.

His work has been shown in galleries and institutions around the world including: Hong Kong, Beijing, Miami, Los Angeles, Milan, Bologna, Lisbon, Kyiv etc. Nunca was also the subject of many books and publications, including The Huffington Post, NY and LA Times as well as Art Review.