Hailing from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Os Gemeos (literally ‘the twins’ in Portuguese) and known to their mother as; Gustavo and Otavio, bring their amazing, surreal and humorous vision to a dynamic solo exhibition at Los Angeles’ PRISM Gallery which opened this past Saturday night.
Miss You runs through March 24th and features Os Gemeos’ saturated colors and signature yellow-hued characters flourishing in an imaginative and vibrant environment. The entire gallery space has been transformed into a dreamlike womb of color. The walls and floor of the gallery were painted. Large paintings share the space with installations and murals. A large box structure is suspended from the ceiling in the entry area with an extra sensory surprise for patrons that bend under and poke their head inside. There are bulbous light sculptures with faces painted on them protruding up from the floor. Step into the side room to find an installation featuring a wall-sized interactive fractal video projection. Climb the stairs to find more work including embroidery and a hanging ski mask and light chandelier installation.
The Twins work together as one unit in all aspects of their creative process, from their paintings to the animation videos they’ve incorporated into their installations. They play with fantastical notions of magical realism. Miss You is a visual exploration of the Twins’ interest in life’s natural magic, its dreams, sentiments, surrealism, realizations, relationships, love, hate and ultimately underlines their intrinsic curiosity to question everything around them.
Raised on hip hop, breakdancing and the street life of Sao Paulo, the twins started painting graffiti in their native country in the late 1980’s. Then in 1993 an encounter with a visiting Barry McGee introduced them to connections north of the equator. With their large -scale murals in the streets of the cities of the world, Os Gemeos have been steadily making an international name for themselves. A first U.S. solo shown in 2003 at The Luggage Store in San Francisco led to more exhibitions including being showcased at Deitch Projects in NYC in 2005 where Jeffrey Deitch noted, “An art intellectual, an art historian can appreciate their work, but a kid on the street can, too”. Os Gemeos were featured in last year’s Art in The Streets exhibition at MOCA, and can next be seen when they exhibit this summer at the ICA in Boston.
Miss You runs from February 25 – March 24, 2012.
Don’t miss it.
PRISM
8746 W. Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood
Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday 11-6.
More exclusive pics of the Prism Gallery’s Os Gemeos “Miss You” Exhibit after the Jump…
