In the early 1930s, following difficulties with the German authorities, the family sought refuge in Belgium, and emigrated to Brazil in 1934, where they took up residence in Nilópolis.

[1][2][3] Ostrower exhibited and won prizes in the international Art Biennials of São Paulo (1951 to 1967), Venice (1958 and 1962) and Mexico (1960).

[1][2] Between 1954 and 1970, Ostrower lectured in Composition and Critical Analysis at the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro.

Consecutively she developed art courses for workers and community centres, and gave lectures at various cultural institutions.

[1][2] In 2023, her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.