The Super Van

The Super Van is the artist name of Vanessa Teodoro, born in South Africa to Portuguese parents and based in Lisbon. She came to painting through design and has been illustrating for over a decade for brands such as Louis Vuitton, Lacoste, IKEA, MTV and Red Bull, while devoting most of her personal work to murals, which she considers the most direct way of making art available to everyone. Her style sets graphic patterns against figurative elements in strong contrasts, with a deliberate streak of chaos and humour. She has several large murals around Lisbon, in Lumiar, Alvalade, Entrecampos and Bairro Padre Cruz. In Almada, the city council invited her in 2017 for its first urban art festival: over five days in the Romeira district she painted a black and white mural on gender equality, built from interlocking puzzle-like patterns rather than figures.