Os Gemeos: The Beauty of Heritage

A beautiful canvas full of colors that you usually see in rainbows. Pictures from a fascinating book that tell the story of the streets and echo a long and rich history filled with passion, pain, joy, and hurt. All of this being conveyed through an unlikely medium, graffiti.

What do you think when you see the word ‘graffiti?’ Maybe you think thugs, or gangs, even the word crime might come to mind but Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, also known as Os Gemeos, or “The Twins” have turned it into a world famous art.

Born in 1974, Otavio and Gustavo grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Twins started their graffiti art in 1987 simply interpreting what they saw every day on the streets of Brazil. The hip hop culture was their main influence in the beginning stages of their art, combined with the unique style of lettering called Pichação, which is a straight-letter style of writing that goes with the urban architecture of São Paulo. “We never watched anyone else painting. The only things that we had were some flicks and a piece of film that showed us graffiti. So we tried to discover how these things were done. We think we ended up discovering other things as a result,” said Otavio in an interview with graffiti.org. That is exactly what they did. As the brothers learned more about the art of graffiti they began to use it as a medium to express the Brazilian culture. Rather than depicting an American hip hop culture they began to include their Brazilian heritage into their larger than life artwork.

The Twins were discovered by American Painter and Graffiti Artist, Barry McGee when he was traveling in Brazil for on a study program through the San Francisco Art Institute. It was through McGee that they met international public artist, Caleb Neelon, who gave them their first taste of creating artwork outside of Brazil.

Since their first show in San Francisco in 2003, the Twins career has launched to magnanimous heights. They were signed onto Nike’s project that was dedicated to Brazil. Together the twins went around the world creating small village houses for Nike parties that celebrated Brazil. They also have had several shows around the world, including painted public pieces for the Olympics in Greece and decorated an entire city train in Porto Alegre, Brazil. They also have pieces in Miami, California, New York, and the Netherlands.

Their latest work is featured in the Prism Gallery in Los Angeles. Os Gemeos showed a completely new body of work, including sculptures, installations and new paintings. Crowds have gathered just to see this amazing show and the streets of L.A., were buzzing with word of the new exhibit. Supposedly the show sold out before the doors could even open.

As famous as they have become in the art world The Twins never abandoned their roots. They still live  down the street from their childhood home, together they share a two bedroom, two bathroom house even if their work sells for thousands a piece. When asked about future plans in an interview with ilovegrafitti.de Otavio replied, “The future belongs to God, we do our best, we enjoy our life and put all love in a simple painting or character. We do not deserve anything, we just started and everything happened the way we planned, the only thing we are worried about is having a particular “style” one day.”

-Stormm Van Rooi