Sollac bets on Street Artist Smile

Ivo Santos, better known as Smile, is a street artist that Sollac has decided to bet on.

Ivo Santos was born in Lisbon in 1985. At the beginning of the new millennium, he ventured into spray painting for the first time, using the pseudonym Smile1art, with cans from a hardware store.Failing to achieve the desired result, he dedicated the next couple of years to perfecting the technique and materials.In 2001, when he returned to the streets, he immediately demonstrated his talent, winning the Odivelas Graffiti Competition the following year. From then on, he did several interventions, mostly for the Ramada Parish Council, where he lived.

His national projection came in 2004, when, virtually unknown to the general community, he categorically won the Oeiras Graffiti Contest, the most important competition at that time.

The internationalization of his art has been ongoing, with invitations to take part in events in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland and Brazil.

His art is essentially photo-realistic paintings. At the same time, he created Primeira Arte Atelier&Gallery, a space open to the public, which serves as a place for exhibiting and presenting projects (visual and/or sound) by national and foreign artists.