Art I Heart — Os Gemeos

Yesterday, we finally made it to the last day of the Art in the Streets exhibit at MOCA, after having dragged our feet about it during its entire run. It was amazing, if not a bit overwhelming and uncomfortably over-crowded.

Yeah, there was a cluster of Banksy pieces. Yes, the Rammellzee black-lit lair was fun, in a post-apocalyptic kind of way. And the city-within-a-gallery "Street" installation was incredibly detailed and packed with clever touches.

But, by far, Os Gemeos swept the show for me. I was aware of the Brazilian twin brothers, but had never been face to face with their work. It was colorful, playful and engaging — a nice balance to some of the rougher, more street-tough representations of graffiti. (Who knows? Maybe I was seeing it all through Mommy-vision.)

Admittedly, this is a pretty lousy photo. On the left was a wall filled with doors and two shacks suspended from the ceiling. It had a definite a favela vibe. On the other side were dozens of speaker heads all playing music from reverberating mouths. And somewhere behind that crush of people was a set of musical instruments featuring more painted faces.

You can see some of their actual (comparatively grittier) street graffiti here.