Cool Hunting

São Paulo street art heroes, Os Gemeos—known for mesmerizing the international art scene with their colorful characters and experimental style—marked a homecoming with their long overdue solo show at the city's highly revered fine arts school, Fundacao Armando Alvares Penteado, that opened last month. Dubbed "Vertigo," the exhibit adds terrific new works to its earlier run in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year.

A towering blue-and-red checkered wall greets showgoers when they enter the enormous, round room. In a neat optical trick, the site-specific painting gives the impression that it's spinning, sucking peripheral figures into its center.

The usual plethora of eclectic figures populate the space, but the artists upped the number to cover the walls floor-to-ceiling. The highlight, however, is the immense sculptural works in the middle of the room. One of these, a boat fronted with drawers and sprouting a lighthouse that morphs into a head, regularly has a line waiting to climb into its interior.

Other new work includes a bird covered in peacock feathers that uses a video of human eyes and a mouth in place of the bird's features. Human-shaped yellow legs further turn it anthropomorphic; the creature reminds me of the Kids in the Hall's Chicken Lady.

See more photos on the Lost Art site.

Vertigo
Through 13 December 2009
Museu de Arte Brasileira da FAAP
Alagoas 903
São Paulo 01242-001
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tel. +11 3662 7200