Scenes from the studio. Always a mess, never a stress
Introducing a few of our models we’ve made over the years. It’s truly one of our favorite parts of the process. Before we make it real, we have to see how it moves, how it scales, and how it feels. And how do we sit within it? It has only been a few years of this, but we used to only understand space by drawing it in 2D. Now, we need a bigger picture. We like to think about how an environment surrounds our work, how the wind affects it, and how humans affect it. We need to understand it from all sides, angles, and colors. As our projects get larger, understanding our space is imperative, and understanding the environment in which it sits is even more so.
As Daniel Buren has said, “The work in situ…opens up the field for a possible transformation of the very place itself”.
Slide 1: Stop, Listen, Look — Chengdu, China
Slide 2: Monument to Movement — Singapore
Slide 3: Now You See Me — London, United Kingdom
Slide 4: Reflection Point — New York City, USA
For people who photograph themselves a lot, the one thing we hate to do is take new portraits. So, it often takes us about 5 years before we can get our butts into gear to take some new ones. A portrait feels quite symbolic — it captures your state of being, your state of mind, at this one point in time. Perhaps that’s why it feels so stressful to achieve! Despite being a colorful pairing, we tend to keep our attire quite somber. It’s one less decision we have to make in the day, and you’d be surprised by how much anxiety that can relieve. On Wade, he wears Greg Laboratory, and on Leta, Melitta Baumeister.
For the past few years, when we have a few free moments in the studio, we are always trying to find ways to do more with our work and explore new mediums, techniques, and materials. One of the ways in which this translates is with painting. For many years, if you happened to visit our studio, you’d see some remnants of canvas in a corner, or some plywood painted with immaculate stripes. Paintings are a long lasting pursuit for us, and are a moment of meditation between client initiatives and other projects.
In September, we spoke at Us by Night in Antwerp. It was the whirlwind of inspiration and energy we needed. Being invited by our dear friend Rizon gave us the push to reflect on what story we truly wanted to tell.
For anyone who’s seen us speak over the past few years, our talks were often about how we live and work together every day — fun, funny, and full of behind-the-scenes honesty. But this time we wanted to tell a new story.
The talk was called Stepping Stones because we’ve never made big sweeping changes, only small and patient steps in the direction that felt truest to us. No forcing, just trusting the process and having belief. We both come from humble beginnings and wanted to speak with honesty about how we slowly built our world by living in a way that felt true to us, full of inspiration, reflection, and individuality. We wanted to show that change in life and career can happen gradually and authentically.
Our previous talks always sparked reactions, but never quite like this. To have people truly feel what we were saying, to see tears, connection, and understanding, was unbelievable. That kind of response means everything to us. If you were there, thank you for listening. 💗
We created new performance videos for this website launch — not only to mark this moment, but also to reflect on the differences between who we were then and who we are now. The behind-the-scenes footage, shot on MiniDV, adds another layer of time and texture to this reflection.”
Some BTS from the studio of Renz+Oei during the construction of Reflection Point, which debuted at Rockefeller Center in summer 2025. Mini DV footage was shot by our bestie, Josh Burgess.