OSGEMEOS Finds Their Improbable Childhood Universe in Their Largest U.S. Exhibition to Date — Colossal

As kids in São Paulo, twin brothers Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo invented a universe they referred to as Tritrez. The paranormal place was dwelling to myriad yellow figures with bulbous heads and lanky our bodies and promoted unusual, but pleasant, habits.

“Yellow has been a really religious coloration for us since we began drawing,” the pair informed their gallery, Lehmann Maupin. “After we have been drawing at our mom’s home, the solar would come by way of the home windows, and the studio would develop into yellow. So we all the time discovered it mystical, peaceable, and harmonious.” 

Working largely as one with shared desires and the uncanny capacity to complete every others’ ideas, the brothers work as OSGEMEOS (beforehand), which interprets to “the twins” in Portuguese. Rooted in graffiti and road artwork, their works might be on view on the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Backyard later this month for his or her largest U.S. exhibition thus far.

Comprising 1,000 work, sculptures, pictures, and archival objects, OSGEMEOS: Infinite Story traces the brothers’ inventive evolution, recreating particulars from their childhood bedrooms and the infrastructure and partitions they painted murals on of their youth. Not often seen sketches and early influences like their mom’s embroideries are on view alongside many items by no means proven outdoors their native Brazil.

Hip-hop and breakdancing characteristic prominently in OSGEMEOS’ work, together with within the sprawling set up “Untitled (92 Audio system).” Yellow and brown faces peer out from boxy audio system and congregate collectively on a pastel pink wall. A symmetric gramophone and boombox painted equally stand on the gallery flooring under and reference the artists’ enduring curiosity in music and its affect on tradition.

Different works lean additional into the sci-fi and supernatural realms. Standing on the middle of 1 gallery is a tall, prismatic sculpture, which depicts certainly one of their signature figures encircled by an alien beam projecting from a flying saucer. Likewise, the 2014 portray “Tritez” finds the extra fantastical particulars of the imagined realm: a blue patchwork whale cradling buildings on its again flies by way of the sky, two siren-like characters dance within the moonlight, and a trio of figures clamber on high of each other in colourful weird clothes.

“Tritrez for us is our soul. It’s our, let’s say, parallel world that we imagine (lives) within us,” they are saying in a video. “We imagine that everyone (has) some type of Tritrez inside. However typically you overlook to see and typically you’re afraid to see.”

The primary 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 rather more on the brothers’ Instagram, so head there to dive deeper into their whimsical world.