João Samina

João Samina, born in 1989 in Setúbal, is a Portuguese urban artist trained as an architect (2007-2013), a discipline that runs through every aspect of his practice. He started out at 14 with stickers and stencils, and has since developed an instantly recognisable visual language in which photorealistic stencil portraits engage with sharp geometric compositions that wrap around and extend the volumes of the buildings they inhabit. His murals often pay tribute to local figures — fishermen, workers, elders — anchoring each piece in the memory of the place, as with his "Old Man" mural in Cascais or his tribute to architect Nuno Teotónio Pereira in Lisbon. He has painted in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, India and the United States, and collaborated with brands such as Nike, Heineken and the Portuguese Football Federation. He divides his time between Portugal and Brazil.