Osgemeos (1974)
Osgemeos are the Brazilian artists Gustavo and Otávio Pandolfo, born on March 29, 1974, internationally recognized for their unique artistic production, marked by a Vibrant, dreamy and innovative aesthetic that combines Brazilian folklore with contemporary urban art. Since childhood, the brothers demonstrated an exceptional talent for creating and transforming fictional universes. At the age of three, they began to draw incessantly, sharing themes and ideas in a family environment that valued art, encouraged by brother Arnaldo, mother Margarida and the whole family. Campos, in São Paulo, where they acquired a solid technical foundation that contributed to the development of their visual language and their trajectory in Brazilian contemporary art. with street art. They began to paint graffiti in the late 1980s and, from 1990 onwards, they intensified their performance in the streets of the Cambuci neighborhood, where they grew up. Using improvised materials, such as automotive paints and deodorants, they experimented freely until they consolidated their own visual language, influenced by North American hip hop and Brazilian graffiti, becoming one of the main references of Brazilian graffiti.
osgemeos They also acted as break dancers in this initial phase, expanding their involvement with the hip hop movement and developing a multidisciplinary view of urban culture. In the early 2000s, they participated in mural projects in train and subway stations in São Paulo, including the painting of a railway composition, made unusual in Brazil and representative of the boldness of their artistic practice.
Osgemeos consolidated their artistic identity with The creation of the fictional people Tritrez, yellow beings that inhabit a dreamlike universe marked by magic, social criticism and visual poetry. These characters have become the signature of the duo, symbolizing the balance between fantasy and reality through compositions that mix surreal architecture, psychedelic patterns, elements of Brazilian culture and everyday scenes.
osgemeos explore themes that encompass the popular imagination, the Brazilian folklore, family portraits, social issues and political reflections, translating individual and collective experiences of urban life in Brazil.
Osgemeos had an important milestone in 1993, when the visit of the American artist Barry McGee (Twist) Brazil significantly influenced its trajectory, presenting new visual references and technical possibilities. In 1995, they held their first exhibition at the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS), in São Paulo, and in 1996 they already participated in exhibitions in alternative spaces in Vila Madalena, contributing to the consolidation of the São Paulo scene of graffiti and art. Urbana.
Osgemeos began their international projection with an exhibition in Munich in 1996, strengthening their global presence in 2003 with the first solo show in the United States, at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco. In 2005, they joined the Deitch Projects Gallery in New York and in 2012 they presented their first institutional solo exhibition at the Boston Contemporary Art Institute.
Osgemeos expanded their performance beyond graffiti, developing Sculptures, installations, panels and scenography, always preserving the playful and poetic dimension of his work. In 2007, in partnership with Nina Pandolfo and never, they painted the facade of Kelburn Castle in Scotland. The following year, they participated in the exhibition “Street Art”, at Tate Modern, London, alongside artists such as Faile, JR, Blu and Sixeart.
Osgemeos performed the intervention on the wall of Keith Haring in New York, 2008, receiving broad acclamation as a relevant contemporary homage to urban art. In 2014, they presented the exhibition “A Ópera da Lua”, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça, and created the art of the Boeing 737 that transported the Brazilian team during the World Cup, celebrating the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Brazilian people.
Osgemeos participated in important international exhibitions in recent years, including “Segredos”, at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2020); “Portal” at Lehmann Maupin, New York (2020); “You Are My Guest”, at the Fosun Foundation, Shanghai (2020); and “When the Leaves Turn to Yellow”, at CAC Málaga, Spain (2022).
Osgemeos have works in important public and private collections, including MAM-SP, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, the Tokyo Art Museum, the Puerto Rico Art Museum and the Franks-Suss Collection in London. In addition, his creations can be found on walls, galleries, museums and cultural institutions in the United States, England, Germany, Greece, Cuba, Japan and several other countries. Dive into a unique and recognizable visual universe. With authenticity, innovation and a strong Brazilian identity, the duo consolidated itself as one of the most influential names in international contemporary art. In 1997, dealer Paulo Figueiredo donated an expressive set of works by Osgemeos to MAM-SP. Pandolfo, are Brazilian graffiti artists from São Paulo whose works stand out for the striking characteristic of their yellow-skinned characters. Internationally recognized, they conquered the global artistic scene with their unique style, which combines urban art and elements of Brazilian folklore. In 2007, the exhibition The Flowers in this Garden were planted by my grandparents, at the Het Domein Sittard Museum in the Netherlands, participated in the exhibition The Flowers in the Netherlands. The show's illustrated catalog presents works by the duo along with others, offering an intimate view of the creative process, with images of remarkable moments and interactions with friends and strangers. 2002, which transforms train wagons into traveling canvas of urban art. In partnership with Fundação Vale, the wagons of the Carajás Railroad were graffitied, on the 892 km stretch between Parauapebas (PA) and São Luís (MA). The project not only took urban art to communities along the railroad, but also promoted art education workshops for teachers and students in cities such as Marabá and Parauapebas, expanding access to culture.
Osgemeos held exhibitions derived from the partnership with The Vale Foundation, like Fermata, at the Vale Museum, in Vitória (ES), between 2011 and 2012, and Vertigo, which passed through São Paulo after Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro, taking new works to the public of the FAAP Brazilian Museum of Art. In an interview with Portal Virgula, the artists discussed their influences, the importance of urban art and the controversy involving the pichadora Carolina Pivetta, condemned after her intervention at the 28th Bienal de São Paulo.
Osgemeos mention influences from the culture hip hop, the Cambuci neighborhood and Brazilian popular art at the beginning of its trajectory. They have always seen graffiti as a tool of criticism and social transformation: “Our art is a tool to criticize, question and transform”. The universe of Osgemeos includes the fictitious world of Tritrez, populated by yellow characters that represent everyday life and often inhabit a parallel dimension with orange sky and fireflies illuminating the night.
Osgemeos highlight, in addition to projects such as Tritrez and the tour with the artist Slava Polunin, his participation in the 2009 Burning Man, in Hawaii, and the meeting with Mark Bode as remarkable moments of his career. Even with great international recognition, they maintain a critical view of the institutional space of art, stating that “what we do in the galleries is not graffiti. graffiti must be on the street”.
Osgemeos comment on the graffiti scene in São Paulo, highlighting the support of the even population. facing policies against local governments. Recently, the City Hall has taken measures to preserve urban art, although challenges such as the “gray truck”, which erases murals, still persist. As for the 28th Bienal de São Paulo, they criticize the show, considering it empty and stating that the action of the pichadores was “the only cool thing” in the edition.
Osgemeos highlight the international recognition of Brazilian street art, stating that the competition is Intense, but that national art is well received abroad when it is authentic, original and of quality. For them, “to remain, you have to really be good.”
Osgemeos reveal that the relationship between the siblings is one of profound symbiosis: “one twin is the other twin and vice versa”. Bomb
Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo, known as Osgemeos, are identical twins whose work may have impacted you without you noticing — perhaps hurriedly in any corner of the world.
Graffitis and murals of the duo exist in several places: São Paulo (his hometown), Athens (where they created a mural for the 2004 Olympics), Berlin, Barcelona, Scotland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Coney Island and even Williamsburg.
They go beyond the traditional limits of street culture by not differentiating between external and internal walls. They feel as comfortable creating on the streets as they produce works on wood or canvas for galleries. His images feed on both the marginal art and the Brazilian folklore and the global hip hop culture, mixed with their own mythology. Its production is multifaceted — paintings, sculptures and installations — and it makes sense: your artistic practice is multiplied by two.
Have you studied art? How do you start doing graffiti? Made a particular context inclining you to intervene in the public space, in other words, if you intend to get involved in a form of social criticism?
We had a high school education until high school. We started studying art on their own at the age of five. It was our way of playing in the street, our fun. Everything was intense and vibrant. Using public space was our way of dialoguing, directly or indirectly, with people. The fact of intervening in this space was already a criticism — it was to change something. Nobody needed to say what to do, when or where.
It's that old story: If you don't use the street, it will end up using you. In Brazil, there are many things that need to be said and exposed: violence, corruption, lack of security... Little is done to change that. It seems that people settle down, run away or pretend not to see. Intervening was our way of speaking.
There is a great tradition of mural painting throughout Latin America. Can you tell us about the iconography you use, the representations of Brazilian folklore in your images? How did you get to your vision?
Brazil is a country not yet fully discovered. It is still looted, used, sold. In the midst of thousands of problems, the people learned to be happy, to improvise. A serious problem can become a joke, and a joke can become a problem.
We live from improvisation. Art too. Brazil is a great mix — of races, cultures, beliefs, foods, music, stories. It is as if there were many worlds within a single country. This is all reflected in our work.
In many of his paintings, instead of finding the great heroic figures of traditional murals, we find some diminished male figures. Why?
It's like a diary: before bed, you write what you felt, what you lived, and keep it on the pillow. Then he decides to show it to the world. Our painting is like this diary.
We live like in a game: laughing wanting to cry, crying wanting to laugh, screaming in silence, listening to the invisible. Painting is a way of interpreting all this — it can have a thousand meanings, and that gives us freedom.
We found that our diary was made of paint, sculpture, construction.
Do you read comics? His images bring them to mind, although they also relate to vernacular culture.
We have thousands of influences. Every second we are absorbing something: a smell, a sound, a taste, an image.
One day, while we were in the studio, we saw a light approaching through the window. My brother held my hand and said, "Let's go." We opened the window and saw a way. We knew we needed to follow him — without fear.
When you believe you can fly, you fly.
Like Vik Muniz, he said about his work, in displacement, challenges the notions of what street and art say. It seems that they spring from an intense interaction between high culture and popular, as well as a need for bridge perceptions of culture, class and aesthetic value. You seem to be as comfortable on the street as in the shopping gallery circuit. Has there ever been any debate around your displaying royal paintings in galleries? Are you still doing graffiti?
We had the chance to see both sides and reflect on it. We learn not to delude ourselves — neither with praise or fame. We sought balance.
For a long time, our graffiti was among people — poor, rich, sad, happy, distracted. Sometimes they noticed, sometimes they passed by. Entering contemporary art was fun. Our first show was at Deitch Projects in New York. Then, in Brazil, at the Fortes Vilaça gallery. People of all classes came, children, the curious.
It was important to live this experience from near and far. But we know how to separate things. The street is a universe; The gallery is different. It's like diving without oxygen — you see a new world down there, but you need to climb back to breathe another world up here.
We have many ideas and we are discovering new forms of expression.
Vik observed that there is a perfect communion between the Two of you. What do you each contribute to the creative process? do you think different? Do you ever want to work on your own?
Everyone has their own privacy, tastes and ways of doing things. But when it comes to osgemeos, we are a single person.
We create a parallel world and living in it is completely natural for us. We are in tune 24 hours a day.
Interview with TPM magazine
by Cirilo Dias
While the mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, insists on Erasing the city's graffiti with gray paint, the graffiti artists Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo, known as the twins, arrive in Madrid to open another exhibition. I dreamed that I had dreamed brings the famous yellow-faced characters stamped on doors, cabinets, kitchen utensils and some multimedia facilities. From Barcelona, by phone, Gustavo Pandolfo talked to TPM.
How did the idea of making this exhibition come about?
The idea came from an invitation from the PILAR PARRA & Romero. They knew our work through the Fortes Vilaça Gallery (São Paulo) and the Deitch Projects (New York). They wanted to make an exhibition of ours in Spain, and the moment was perfect, as it coincided with the International Fair of Contemporary Art in Madrid (ARCO). It was a great opportunity, because in addition to our solo exhibition, there was also the Fortes Vilaça stand at Arco.
And where did the inspiration come from? Siba (Siba and Fuloresta). We had been working together for some time now, we did the arts of his last record, so this partnership was a natural starting point.
And what was it like to draw on furniture, organs? and with elements related to music. We don't play instruments, but we really like experimental songs, such as Siba's work and Fuloresta, which has a strong root in Brazil, this improvised thing. Our work is also influenced by this. At the installation, the musician, people could play the organ, which was connected to the speakers, creating a direct interaction with the work.
And how was the repercussion of the exhibition?
was superpositive. We set up everything on Saturday and, when the exhibition would open on Tuesday, on Saturday all the pieces were sold. As the exhibition coincided with Arco, several international art collectors contacted the gallery and bought the works.
and is it expected to come to Brazil?
Not for now. Part of this exhibition came from the Het Domain Museum in the Netherlands and then would go to New York if the pieces had not been sold. As they were all purchased, we will set up a new exhibition in New York in July. In Brazil, for now, there is no forecast.
And what do you think of this attitude of the São Paulo City Hall to clean the graffiti with gray paint?
We think it's very sad. Our work was born on the streets of São Paulo, and it was because of him that we were invited to exhibitions and recognized as artists. We do the same work in contemporary art galleries, which are respected and our works are sold.
But in São Paulo this goes unnoticed. We work with one of the best galleries in Latin America, Fortes Vilaça, but the City Hall doesn't want to know that. The Lord of Glasgow asked us to do a work in a castle in Scotland, placing the Brazilian flag at the top, a great tribute to our country, and Brazil itself does not recognize this as art. It's sad, isn't it? It is the reflection of where we live.
In São Paulo, this happens because it reflects the management of the city, who governs. It's hard to fight it. We have always done conscious work on the streets, without harming anyone, with the intention of beautifying the city, of giving gifts to art and culture. But now there is this stupidity of erasing everything and painting everything gray.
any solution that pleases city hall and graffiti artists?
I believe that São Paulo should be as it always was. There should be no repression against this type of art, because there are many other more important problems for the City to be concerned about. They are spending money, manpower and time wiping out a work of art. They are erasing the dream of someone who leaves the periphery, with the hope that their work will be seen, as happened with us.
Individual exhibitions
2004 Estação da Luz, São Paulo
2005 Watermill, Robert Wilson Center, New York Nike Tour, Fire House, New York Milan, Paris National Stadium, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London Creative Time Project, Coney Island Marginal Knight, Deitch Project Gallery, New York
2006 The fish that ate falling stars, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo
2007 Drawing, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paulo The flowers of this garden My grandparents planted, Museum Het Domein Sittard, Sittard, Netherlands
2008 PILAR PARRA GALLERY AND ROMERO, MADRID TOO FAR TOO CLOSE, DEITCH PROJECT GALLERY, NEW YORK VERTIGEM, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba
2009 Vertigem, CCBB Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro MAB Brazilian Art Museum, São Paulo Collective Exhibitions 1993 Galeria MIS, São Paulo
1998 A minute of silence, Funarte, São Paulo
1999 Livin Large, Munich Isart, Munich
2000 Graffiti Aus São Paulo Brasilien, Die Färberei, Munich Just Write My Name, Bremen, Germany Academie der Kunste, Berlin Agenda 21 Project, Hildeshein, Germany Galerie Ecureuil, Niort, France Urban Discpline, Hamburg
2001 50 years of Bienal de São Paulo, Bienal Foundation, São Paulo Galerie du Jour Agnes B, Paris Mural Global, Sao Paulo Tokion Store, New York Urban Discipline
2001, Hamburg
2002 Area2010, Sydney, Australia Chromopolis, Paneling in Athens Olympic Games, Athens, Greece Area2010, Sydney, Australia Chromopolis, Paneling in Athens Olympic Games, Athens Global Graffiti Art, Anne Moerchen Galerie, Hamburg I Don´t Know, Die Faerberei Galerie, Munich Kanvas, Kassel, Germany Toleranci, Galerie Ecureuil, Niort, France Schlachthof Cultural Center, Wiesbaden, Germany Urban Dicipline, Hamburg
2003 Break, New Image Gallery, Los Angeles CubaBrasil, Regla, Havana, Piñar del Rio, Cuba Pavil, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco Break, New Image Gallery, Los Angeles, USA CubaBrasil, Regla, Havana, Piñar del Rio, Cuba Pavil, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2004 Beautiful Losers: Contemporary ArtStreet Culture, Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco Regellos, Halle2, Heidelberg, Germany Gra(ff)ite, Alhambra, United States Montana Shop, Barcelona, Urbis Museum, Manchester, England Beautiful Losers: Contemporary ArtStreet Culture, Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, USA Regellos, Halle2, Heidelberg, Germany Gra(ff)ite, Alhambra, USA Montana Shop, Barcelona, Spain Urbis Museum, Manchester, UK
2005 Beautiful Losers: Contemporary ArtStreet Culture, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, United States The Smell of the Rain, Deitch Project in Miami Art Basel, Miami Beautiful Losers: Contemporary ArtStreet Culture, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, USA The Smell of the Rain, Deitch Project in Miami Art Basel, Miami, USA 2006 9th Bienal de la Havana, Havana Beautiful Losers: Contemporary ArtStreet Culture, Triennale di Milano, Parallel Milan
2006, Ibirapuera Park, São Paulo 9th Bienal de la Havana, Havana, Cuba Beautiful Losers: Contemporary ArtStreet Culture, Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy Parallel 2006, Parque do Ibirapuera, São Paulo, Brazil
2007 Mundo Animal, São Paulo School, São Paulo Wakin Up Nights, from Puryluxembourg, Zurich Kunsthalle Barmen, von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal, Germany Musée International des Arts Modestes (MIAM), Sète, France Animal World, São Paulo School, São Paulo, Brazil Wakin Up Nights, Puryluxembourg, Zurich, Switzerland Kunsthalle Barmen, von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal, Germany Musée International des Arts Modestes (MIAM), Sète, France
2008 Imaginary Realities, Max Wigram Gallery, London Salon National des Beaux-Arts, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris When Lives Become Form: Creative Power from Brazil, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), Imaginary Realities, Max Wigram Gallery, London, UK When Lives Become Form: Creative Power from Brazil, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), Japan
2009 nudes [nudes], Galeria Fortes Vilaça & Bergamin Gallery, Sao Paulo The Portrait Show, Durex Contemporary Art, Rio de Janeiro When Lives Become Form: Creative Power from Brazil, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan
