Fabiola Morais is a multi-media artist based in central Brazil. These pictures, frames of video, are from the Kayapo Indians, one of the Brazilian ethnic groups threatened by the construction of Belo Monte, one of the largest dams in the world.

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Joe Fenton has had a string of successes that any artist would give his right hand for: working with the likes of director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys) as a film concept designer and sculptor as well as with companies like Disney and Miramax.

He’s a children’s book illustrator, and oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he only started drawing a year and a half ago and is already making murals that would blow Hieronymous Bosch’s mind were he still alive and kicking. Holy crap, I’m envious as hell.

On the June 11, one night before the equivalent of Valentines Day in Brazil, the band Homemade Blockbuster performed an urban intervention which they glued heart-shaped stickers on the red lights all over town and released their new single called Heartlights.

Brooklyn-based Tag Brum is a Brazilian artist whose primary method is drawing and collage. His works explore his experiences of growing up in southern Brazil. His latest pieces talk about street kids and the overwhelming voyeurism of social networks, where eyeballs are staring from nothing at nothing, constantly pressuring one to glamorize every mundane breath to an entropic level.

Juliana Dadalto, a multi-discipline artist from Brazil, can make the simplest detail of make-up become something magical. Her work also involves paper-craft and face painting and were nominated in two categories at the Conexion Beauty Art 2011.

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Attending Jonathan Darby’s solo show at London’s Signal Gallery last week reminded me of the movie, City of God. This clichéd perspective of the living conditions of a Brazilian slum was fuelled by how the gallery was set up to resemble your “typical” Rio favela by decorating the environment as such.

As a result, some of the things you will notice in the gallery are items of clothing held up on a washing line as if to dry; rooms set up as wooden shacks; and in the corner at the far end, a tyre, a rusting barrel, and other rubbish are strategically placed to look like general waste.

Walking into one of the rooms, Darby’s installation has been set up as a favella home. A desk, a mirror and other inanimate objects and children’s toys are scattered around untidily. A child’s drawing is ironically hung up on the decaying wall, showing sunshine and a blue sky, whilst a battered radio broadcasts a DJ incessantly speaking in Portuguese.

‘Favela’ is Jonathan’s second solo show at the Signal gallery and he has adapted his chosen theme forcibly. Using the socio-political subject matter as a springboard to convey suffering, he achieves this through his terracotta painted portraits of children. In conjunction with the Children At Risk Foundation (CARF), which runs shelter for Sao Palo’s street children, Darby’s show concentrates on the kids orphaned and abandoned by their parents.

Darby’s technical ability as an artist is unquestionable. With painstaking detail, he is able to convey the needed pathos, skilfully cohering the texture and fibre of garbage into the skin tones of his child portraits. Favela is flawed in the message it is trying to achieve, but is, nonetheless, a brilliant exhibition of dexterity and compassion.

With contemporary design and a bohemian air, Olga Olsson’s bikinis are sexy and boast ethical credentials, too. Designer Ruth Ferguson’s stay in Brazil introduced her to the fairtrade project supporting cooperatives of women seamstresses in the favelas.

The brand employs marginalised young people and pays them a fair wage, while the prints are digital to minimise ink wastage. The bikinis come with a ‘fita do bonfim’ ribbon from Salvador de Bahia that grants you a wish. You can’t be blamed if yours is to stroll around Ipanema — bikini or no bikini.

Sao Paulo designer Andreia Chaves created these extraordinary ‘invisible shoes‘, which are made from a ‘faceted mirrored surface allowing the shoe to reflect different angles of the environment around it thus camouflaging itself with its surroundings’.

The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project involved fourteen countries around the world filling crates with the best of their local nightlife and exchanging their country’s crate with another. We were there all the way, following Australia’s involvement. And the final stage, with Brazil and Australia swapping crates, was a beauty! As this video attests.

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Hussein Jarouche’s 3,200-square-foot apartment in Brazil features an amazing, bending bookcase that wraps around the whole apartment.

It’s not often that art is shown making a huge difference in peoples lives, but every now and then, it really does. And nothing makes me happier than to see creativity being used to help better one’s own community. Especially when the end result is as cheerful as project Tudo de Cor para Santa Marta.

The community of Santa Marta, in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, teamed up with artists Haas and Han to turn some 7,000 square meters of hillside slum and convert it into a new monument for the community.

While researching my end of year trip to South America, I stumbled across a cute little historical town in Brazil called Paratay. Apparently it’s known for its 19th century colonial architecture, but I can’t tell you a thing about that. I’m too busy imagining what my life would be like if I called this palatial beach house my casa. Maybe I’d be a Brazilian swimwear designer and use the beachfront pool to host collection launches. Or perhaps I’d dabble in some sort of illicit trade, making the boat-only access more of a necessity than a luxury.

Designed by Marcio Kogan, one of Brazil’s most influential architects, this is the house he predicted to be his favourite, before it was even finished. Now if I had to ‘work’ on one of the hundreds of islands located off the coast of Paratay, surrounded by lush Brazilian jungle and a private beach, I’m pretty sure this job would be my favorite too. What I like best about Kogan’s houses is that he stays true to his open-air philosophy and minimalistic style. Which as most of you know, is just how I like it.

I was lucky enough to be invited to Sydney’s Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange party, where Brazilian nightlife from Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro was joyfully brought into Sydney for a big crowd of competition winners. The party featured Brazil’s best, including electric performances from the samba sounds of Rhythm Brazil, before the dancefloor exploded with Bonde do Rolê blasting the crowd with incredible energy and catchy beats. When Rolling Stone picked Bonde do Rolê as one of ten bands to watch as far back as 2006, they were onto something.

A taste of Brazil was on hand with killer cocktails and delicious treats being served up, and the equally tasty Carnival girls were on hand to show the Sydney crowd how to shake it on the dance floor. At the same time, across the world in Sao Paulo, Brazilian guests were treated to the best of Australian home-grown talent from artists Muscles, Bag Raiders and Van She.

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If you’ve ever thought about trading everything in to go and live in a hut on a beach somewhere, then you need to read on. Close your eyes and imagine a place worth relocating for, a place where you could truly embody the South American’s passion for life; somewhere where you wouldn’t let life pass you by in a blur of back-to-back meetings and traffic jams. Open your eyes to Pousada Água de Côco.

Set at the end of a 30-kilometer potholed track in Icaraizinho de Amontada in the Northeast Region of Brazil, this is the kind of place you arrange your entire itinerary around. Three wooden bungalows sit on a picturesque palm fringed beach, facing the clear turquoise waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Spend your days relaxing in your own personal hammock and your nights feasting on stone-cooked fish and vegetables at Pousada’s restaurant.

A high-energy urban arts scene is emerging in Brazil’s biggest metropolis, making the ‘concrete jungle’, as the city is known, one of the ‘coolest’ places in the world right now. Exploring the relationship between art, architecture and skate, the Matilha Cultural Gallery (Cultural Pack) in the center of São Paulo is hosting the exhibition, Destroy and Create, until September 3.

A skater’s eyes are trained to identify the gaps and curves in the path, which ensures that the architecture of a city has an important role in shaping the sport. This show will feature the works of artists, architects, photographers and video makers, plus a sculpture created by Collective Noh, which actually serves as an obstacle for skaters.

Kidnappings, murder, high level corruption and ear reconstruction are all part of life in Brazil’s Sao Paulo. The best documentaries cover all angles of a story, and here, nobody has been left out. The police, the government, potential victims and actual victims, a kidnapper, along with a plastic surgeon, the guy who makes bullet proof cars, and a frog farmer all get screen time. It’s a fascinating look into the endemic corruption that’s part of Brazil’s government, and the way the poor are driven to crime.

The kidnapper here is actually the most interesting character as he describes his ‘job’ as a way of life and means of supporting not just his family but the whole community. Some of the interviews, such as the plastic surgeon who redesigns the ears of people who’ve lost them during a kidnapping may have been unnecessary, and blaming the crime at a basic level on top level corruption feels a little forced, but still a compelling and gripping look into brutal real life kidnappings and the rampant stealing that Brazil allows it’s politicians to get away with.

Brazilian designer Mauricio Arruda created these environmentally friendlier storage units that are fitted for the plastic storage crates found in Brazilian markets rather than wooden drawers, thereby requiring less wood and allowing owners to reuse old crates in a more aesthetically pleasing way.

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As a baker by trade, these Toast It bread shaped trivets from the Brazilian design studio, Oiti, have resulted in immediate clambering through Google Search in an unsuccessful attempt to make these my own. Looking more like a delicious Loaf made up of perfectly sliced and packaged Whole Wheat, the temptation is strong to top them with butter and jam instead of a cup of tea. Anyone interested in a breakfast of Tea and Cork?

Brazilian photographer Gabriel Wickbold’s kinetic, color-saturated images are incredibly sensual, grotesque, and simultaneously fantastical and hyperreal.

Paraty is a small town in the Costa Verde, midway between Rio and Sao Paulo. The city has a beautiful historic center, very well preserved colonial buildings, and stoned streets — testimony to the golden Portuguese time, when the gold from Minas Gerais was transported to the port of Paraty. In “exchange”, stones arrived via the Portuguese ships. At the east side of the historic center are two beaches and the fort, which are the main attractions. Jabaquara beach is calm and has a lot of kiosks where you can drink Cachaza, the liquor produced in the zone. Just 45 minutes from Paraty is Trindade, a place to chill out, with endless sunshine and great beaches. [Photos by Jessica Parra Nowajewski]