bigod o sapo

BIGOD, a self-taught Brazilian artist, uses his talent as a tool to build escape routes for creativity through graffiti.

Jocivaldo Santos Silva, baptized and confirmed in capoeira and the art world as Bigod, has dedicated his journey to learning and the constant pursuit of evolution, which reflects his daily life in his work.

Born in 1981 in the capital of the state of Bahia, heavily influenced by cartoons, comics, and games, he was introduced to the world of graffiti in the late 1990s. While still in high school, he began experimenting with painting on shirts using spray paint and an airbrush, and only later did he extend his practice to walls.

In 2005, he participated in a project where he painted every day, and unconsciously, his strokes and technique took a constant tangent of growth, often focused on the characters with whom he has the most affinity, from which his trademark was born: the cururu toads in various shapes and colors. Along with that came the memory of his childhood near the tide with the pufferfish and the protection from the unknown with the figureheads.

His works can be seen in many places in Salvador and some inland areas of Bahia. With the aim of spreading Bahian art and culture through graffiti, he was invited to execute murals in several cities around the world: Paris, Rome, Modena, Florence, Venice, Reggio Emilia, Verbania, Milan, Bologna, Bassano del Grappa, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Berlin, Mexico City and Tabasco are just a few examples of where “the frog” has already jumped.

Today, an illustrator and concept artist at AOCA game lab, a member of ABP-Brazilian Academy of Characters, one of the creators and curators of the BTC Bahia de todas as cores graffiti festival, he is part of the Nova 10Ordem crew and is one of the founding partners of the Salvador street art museum, MUSAS, which operates at Bigod. He has always been self-taught and is always looking to evolve professionally, with his skills that go beyond the walls. Playing with customizations for all types of media, from set design to design and advertising, all the way to games.
Bigod’s art has a very strong interaction with playfulness, making him a magnet for the collective imagination, working in graffiti workshops in the middle of the street, present in graffiti campaigns within various communities in Salvador, painting daycare centers and schools, popularizing and showing that art can return to where it came from, thus making graffiti his escape route to Shangri-La.