Identical twins Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo’s unique artistic style doesn’t just grab viewers attention immediately, but holds it profoundly, in their new exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
The pair, also known internationally as OSGEMEOS, meaning “the twins” in Portuguese, pull from their early childhood artwork in São Paulo to provide a youthful flair to the exhibit.
The third-floor exhibit spans about 16,000 square feet of creativity. There is only one path in the Hirshhorn Museum — a loop — to take throughout the exhibits. The shape of the museum played a big part in how curator Marina Isgro and OSGEMEOS decided to lay out the exhibit.
“[OSGEMEOS] was really inspired by that idea of the circle and the way they could think about their stylistic arc, in terms of an arc or a loop,” Isgro said. “You'll notice actually, in the lobby, on the entrance wall, they painted one of their figures in kind of their old style from the ‘90s. And then on the exit wall, there's a character in their new style for today. There's that idea of process and how they've grown as artists that I think really works with this building.”
This exhibit has been in the works for almost four years and includes nearly 1,000 artworks. With the sheer length of the exhibit, viewers can expect to see glimpses of many different mediums and styles of artwork.
“I would say my favorite things in the show are the immersive installations. So I absolutely love the moon room, which is a sort of vignette that they've created of a crescent moon sleeping in an old-fashioned bedroom,” Isgro said. “What I've come to appreciate about them is the more time you spend with their work, the more you see in it. There's so much detail.”
Isgro defines the artistic pair as “world builders.” OSGEMEOS focuses a large portion of their work on a fantastical world, Tritrez, they made up many years ago.
“Tritrez is a place that we feel comfortable that we went to as children… and it was so magical, so spiritual,” Otavio said. “We believe that everybody has pure imagination [inside].”
“They had this idea that there was this sort of shared world that maybe they had come from and that we would all go to after our deaths,” Isgro added. “And they've sort of built that out over the years, again, incorporating elements of Brazilian architecture in a lot of these paintings, but also images that are completely surreal.”
Isgro said that the exhibit is a “complicated and interesting” combination of “their own Brazilian upbringing with this sort of American hip hop style elements of sci-fi [and] ‘80s film into this blend that is completely unique to them.”
Throughout the exhibit, OSGEMEOS combines aspects of physical art with music and video that they created.
“We grew up in this whole hip hop movement in Brazil in 1984 when it started there…,” Gustavo said. “Through hip hop, we discovered different kinds of music.”
One of the final rooms in the exhibition features various pictures of places in São Paulo, the city where OSGEMEOS created their art and highlights their deep connection to their home.
“We see São Paulo as our studio, we go out and we paint,” Otavio said.
“Endless Story” provides viewers with a glimpse into the creative minds of two identical twins. The exhibit runs from Sept. 29 to Aug. 3, 2025. Timed entry passes are free but must be reserved on the Hirshhorn website beforehand. While the two artists created many pieces together, their work appears as one.
“They're twins. They're completely in sync,” Isgro said.
This article was edited by Samantha Skolnick, Tyler Davis, Marina Zaczkiewicz and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Sabine Kanter-Huchting and Ella Rousseau.
