998. Vik Muniz (1961-),

Brazilian/American, Camila, 2003.

Chromogenic print, 254 x 182.9 cm.

 

 

Vik Muniz

(1961 –)

 

Vik Muniz (1961-) is a Brazilian born, New York based artist that experiments with different forms of media which he uses to make an image, then photographs to create the final piece. He was originally trained as a sculptor, but later began to research an aesthetic that involved different visual jokes and puns. Since the 1990s, Muniz has earned an international reputation for the works he creates out of everyday objects and materials, including chocolate syrup, caviar, diamonds, and garbage. He uses these different components to re-create well known art and images from popular culture then in the small interval of time that the finished piece is intact he takes a photograph as the final phase of the process. This visual trickery subverts the photographic medium and reveals its own unreliability. Muniz’s work has become internationally known, collected and exposed in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate Modern and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.