RIO DE JANEIRORIO DE JANEIRO — Betto Almeida is the Mr. Lucky of Rio’s Carnival. The 36-year-old artist awakes at 8 a.m. Has a little breakfast. Survives a commute through the city’s tough traffic.

Andy Golub started out getting arrested, along with his models, for painting naked bodies in Times Square. Fast-forward a decade, and the artist and activist has taken it from the streets to the stage ...

In some ways, artist Alexa Meade is a traditional figure painter, replicating the light and shadow that falls on the human body in a naturalistic way. But she works on an unusual canvas: the actual ...