Art and Architecture

With so much diversity, beauty, and extremities packed into its immense territory, it’s no wonder that artistry and creativity run rampant in Brazil [1]. Culture, both “high” and “low,” but especially cultura popular, is seemingly everywhere—in the masterful elaboration of a tall tale at a bar table, the intricate embroidery of a tablecloth, the expressive sculpting of a clay figurinha, not to mention the 45-minute choreographed spectacle of enormous floats, dazzling costumes, and thousands of samba-ing singers and dancers vying for the yearly championship title during Rio’s famous Carnaval [2]. With endless sources of inspiration, there are no limits to Brazilians’ creativity.