WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA.- PRISM presents Miss You, an exhibition of new paintings, sculptures and installation by famed Brazilian artists Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, better known as Os Gemeos.
In Miss You, Os Gemeos continue to play with fantastical notions of magical realism. Like their earlier installations, these recent works expand on the artists’ imagination and creative use of space. Their signature yellow character, a mainstay in their work, exists in a dreamlike space. What compounds this effect is the duos’ inclusion of nature, faces and human-esque objects. The pair brings the aforementioned to life with rich colors and unique patterns that are so thoroughly considered that they too become characters in this fantasy realm. Yet, dream is primarily an aesthetic function, and in these works it serves to distract, to masks the works’ deeper motivations, which is to blur the lines between realism and fiction.
Miss You avoids a typical, cohesive theme in order to take viewers through a disjointed, labyrinth fashioned in the artists’ minds. While each work reverberates individually, together, they pin-ball through a range of pictorial styles and concepts. In In Do Outro Lada Da Lua (The Other Side of the Moon), 2012, the Twins incorporates stripes, opposing colors and perspective tropes to give the optical illusion that the anonymous yellow character is trapped in a falling position. No Fundo De Mar E Respirar Mas Facil (In the Death of the Ocean it’s Easier to Breathe), 2012 depicts the character seemingly at the bottom of the sea wearing a tribal mask and dressed in various outrageous patterns. In this painting, he pulls a woman who sits in the mouth of what is part-fish and part-wooden cart. To the left of him are two brightly patterned fish engaged in a kiss. Os Gemeos enhances the mystery of their work in Obeijo De Lingua (Kiss With The Tongue), 2012 by surrounding the character with a series of heads while he covers half his face with a mask shaped like a bird’s beak. Miss You asks the viewer to let go, to be naïve, to resist reality, if only for a moment, and accept a world where dreams and imagination are allowed to flourish.
Os Gemeos, the Brazilian twins Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo, are best known for their fantastical and unique installations and large-scale murals. The twins site graffiti as a component of their artistic language, but the main influence of their work is the socio-economic landscape they grew up in. They began to experiment at age 12 during their childhood in the central region of São Paulo. The twins utilized mediums such as car paint, latex and spray paint, even incorporating deodorant and perfume to add additional dimension to their work. Gaining inspiration from the city’s environment, it helped shape their aesthetic into their distinct and recognizable style.
The artists garnered attention in 2005, when they exhibited at Deitch Projects in New York. Since that exhibition, their work has transformed from exclusively large-scale murals to include smaller, site-specific installations and individual works on canvases and panels. In recent years, Os Gemeos exhibited their work internationally including exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, throughout Europe as well as São Paulo, Latin America and Asia.
