After “Diamond Divas & Caviar Monsters”, 2004 and “Pictures of Pigment”, 2007, Xippas Gallery proudly presents the third solo show in Greece of the internationally acknowledged Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz. This new series of works entitled “Pictures of Magazine 2”, created in 2011 & 2012, will be exhibited simultaneously in Galerie Xippas, Paris, Xippas Art Contemporain, Geneva and Xippas Gallery, Athens.
Vik Muniz is well-known for recreating famous artworks with diverse, ephemeral materials (grains of sugar, chocolate syrup, ketchup, peanut butter, caviar, dust, ash, thread, diamond dust) and photographically reproducing them in large format. After the series “ Pictures of Garbage” portraying trash pickers in the Jardim Gramacho, the largest garbage dump located outside Rio de Janeiro, this time Muniz chooses to work with “intellectual” garbage and its physical embodiment.
The current trend in informational overload which creates an irrevocable necessity for immediate consumption of printed material and constant news feed, leaves behind plenty of raw material for Muniz’s new works: irregular pieces and stripes from fashion, art, news magazines, with images or text, comprise the work’s structural material. Historic works of the 19th century by Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh and others are recomposed using shreds of pictures of persons from advertising campaigns, celebrities, comic book heroes, together with parts of titles and subtitles, syllables from words and fragmented phrases. Muniz accomplishes a ‘painterly’ final result, as the interwined, irregularly torn pieces of paper give the same visual impression as the large overlapping brush strokes.
The significant difference with his previous series is that in “Pictures of Magazine 2” the image and its components have the same importance, as every shred continues to carry its own strong visual or intellectual impact.The viewer is invited to perform a double recall: to evoke and process information he had normally overlooked in the recent or distant past and “see” at the same time the reconstructed image by recomposing the original.
Vik Muniz was born in São Paolo, Brazil. He lives and works in Rio de Janeiro and New York. He has had solo shows at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil (2009), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA (2007), P.S.1, NY (2007), Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, USA (2006), Miami Art Museum, Miami, USA (2006), Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2006), Fundacion Telefonica, Madrid, Spain (2004-2005), MACRO-Museo d’ Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy (2003), Brazilian Pavillion and Palazzo Fortuny (with Ernesto Neto) at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), Whitney Museum, NY (2001), Centre Nationale de la photographie, Paris, France (1999), International Center of Photography, NY (1998), Galerie Xippas, Paris, France (2010, 2006, 2004, 2001, 1999), Brent Sikkema Gallery, NY (2011, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998), Galeria Fortes Vilaca, Sao Paolo, Brazil (2010, 2003, 2001, 2000) among others His work is in the collection of Whitney Museum of American Art, The Solomon Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA, The Tate Gallery, London, UK, La Fondation Cartier, Paris, France and others.
Vik Muniz was the subject of the Academy Award nominated documentary film Waste Land (2010) which followed his work with a group of catadores – pickers of recyclable materials – in Jardim Gramacho, the world’s largest garbage dump located outside Rio de Janeiro. In recognition of his contributions to education and social development he was recently named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
