NEW YORK—Each school day, while the little kids at PS 11 in Chelsea run around the playground, a big colorful kid watches over them. Standing more than five stories tall, “The Kid” was painted by graffiti artists OsGemeos (Brazilian twin brothers named Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo) and New York-based Futura2000 in August 2010. The boy in the school yard mural has yellow skin—a trademark the brothers invoke in their figurative works—wears a funky-patterned green shirt painted by Futura2000 and shorts adorned with colorful flags. On their website, OsGemeos states that the flag concept “signifies unity, a world without borders, combined to form ‘one world one voice.'”
Greeting neighborhood passersby and kindergarten through fifth grade students, the grand schoolyard work is a beacon celebrating international diversity and replicates “giants” the brothers have painted in Greece, Holland, Lisbon, London and Sao Paulo.
All photos © Arts Observer
See more about the mural project here.