Os Gêmeos delight and provoke

By GREG COOK  |  August 10, 2012

The ICA show is a clinical presentation of just 11 paintings dating back to 2006. Yellow cartoon dudes prance inside an upside-down house. They wear folk masks (Brazilian folk traditions are an inspiration) and walk on or under water. They pray and play guitar as a house burns above them. A couple of paintings celebrate the glory days of vandals graffiting in New York subway tunnels. Their outfits are covered with actual sequins and painted psychedelic plaids, polka dots, and flowers. It's a trippy, Latin-flavored, magic-realist carnival of dreams.

And the twins offer more surprises. Their officially approved trompe l'oeil painting on the Revere Hotel (200 Stuart Street) is a symbolic self-portrait of two life-sized guys in hoodies. One perches on the other's shoulders to spray "Gêmeos."Alonzo says, "They insisted on painting at night. They wanted to surprise the city."

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