OSGEMEOS Unearths Their Fantastic Childhood Universe in Their Largest U.S. Exhibition to Date
Installation view of “Untitled (92 Speakers)” (2019), “Gramophone” (2016), and “1983 – THE BOOMBOX” (2017). Photo by Rick Coulby. All images © OSGEMEOS, shared with permission
OSGEMEOS Unearths Their Fantastic Childhood Universe in Their Largest U.S. Exhibition to Date
September 20, 2024
Art
Grace Ebert
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As children in São Paulo, twin brothers Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo invented a universe they called Tritrez. The mystical place was home to myriad yellow figures with bulbous heads and lanky bodies and promoted strange, yet friendly, behavior.
“Yellow has been a very spiritual color for us since we started drawing,” the pair told their gallery, Lehmann Maupin. “When we were drawing at our mother’s house, the sun would come through the windows, and the studio would become yellow. So we always found it mystical, peaceful, and harmonious.”
Installation view of OSGEMEOS, “Chuva de verão (Summer Rain)” (2008), “O abduzido (The Abductee)” (2020), “The Garden” (2020), and “The Sunset” (2019). Photo by Rick Coulby
Operating largely as one with shared dreams and the uncanny ability to finish each others’ thoughts, the brothers work as OSGEMEOS (previously), which translates to “the twins” in Portuguese. Rooted in graffiti and street art, their works will be on view at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden later this month for their largest U.S. exhibition to date.
Comprising 1,000 paintings, sculptures, photos, and archival objects, OSGEMEOS: Endless Story traces the brothers’ creative evolution, recreating details from their childhood bedrooms and the infrastructure and walls they painted murals on in their youth. Rarely seen sketches and early influences like their mother’s embroideries are on view alongside many pieces never shown outside their native Brazil.
Hip-hop and breakdancing feature prominently in OSGEMEOS’ work, including in the sprawling installation “Untitled (92 Speakers).” Yellow and brown faces peer out from boxy speakers and congregate together on a pastel pink wall. A symmetric gramophone and boombox painted similarly stand on the gallery floor below and reference the artists’ enduring interest in music and its influence on culture.
Other works lean further into the sci-fi and supernatural realms. Standing at the center of one gallery is a tall, prismatic sculpture, which depicts one of their signature figures encircled by an alien beam projecting from a flying saucer. Likewise, the 2014 painting “Tritez” unearths the more fantastical details of the imagined realm: a blue patchwork whale cradling buildings on its back flies through the sky, two siren-like characters dance in the moonlight, and a trio of figures clamber on top of one another in colorful bizarre clothing.
“Tritrez” (2014), spray paint and sequins on wood. Photo by Rick Coulby
“Tritrez for us is our soul. It’s our, let’s say, parallel world that we believe (lives) inside of us,” they say in a video. “We believe that everybody (has) some kind of Tritrez inside. But sometimes you forget to see and sometimes you are afraid to see.”
The first monograph of OSGEMEOS’ work written in English accompanies the exhibition, which runs from September 29, 2024, to August 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. There’s much more on the brothers’ Instagram, so head there to dive deeper into their whimsical world.
Detail of installation view of “Untitled (92 Speakers)” (2019), “Gramophone” (2016), and “1983 – THE BOOMBOX” (2017). Photo by Rick Coulby
“1980” (2020), mixed media with
sequins on MDF, 86 1/4 × 125 9/16 × 2 inches
“Retratos (Portraits)” (2023–2024), mixed media on MDF. Photo by Rick Coulby
Detail of “Retratos (Portraits)” (2023–2024), mixed media on MDF. Photo by Rick Coulby
“O dia da festa de break (The
Breakdancing Party’s Day)” (2016), mixed media on panel, 80 5/16 × 64 9/16× 7 7/8 inches.
(204 × 164 × 20 cm). Photo by Max Yawney
Detail of an installation view of ‘OSGEMEOS: Endless Story.’ Photo by Rick Coulby
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