OSGEMEOS

Description

Enter the world of OSGEMEOS, the Brazilian twins driving international graffiti culture.

The first major book on OSGEMEOS (Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo) follows the twins from their origins in 1970s São Paulo to the height of world graffiti fame. Combining folkloric and contemporary elements of Brazilian society with graffiti, hip-hop, and youth culture, the artists’ expansive body of work embraces murals, paintings, sculpture, installations, and video, all using a symbolic visual language often inspired by dreams.

Renowned for their spindly yellow characters—often seen dancing, writing graffiti, interacting with their urban settings, and stretching high across buildings and train cars worldwide—OSGEMEOS creates works that invite readers into a surreal, chimerical world filled with motifs that signal access to another realm or the deep psyche. Their fantasy world, called Tritrez, is the apex of their vision: a land of wonder that reflects the diverse nature of Brazil itself.

Contributions from scholars and graffiti-world greats accompany photos of their work from the past four decades in OSGEMEOS: Endless Story, as well as, for the first time, a selection of their black-book drawings. This work contains a gatefold.Marina Isgro is associate curator, media and performance art, and Melissa Chiu is director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

Marguerite Itamar Harrison is an expert on Brazilian art at Smith College.

Alan Ket is cofounder and curator of the Museum of Graffiti and Wynwood Gallery, Miami, Florida.

Peter Michalski is an expert in uncommissioned public works on walls and trains.

Jochen Volz is the director of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil.HK

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