Vik Muniz

Born in 1961 in São Paulo, Vik Muniz lives and works between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and New York, USA.

Vik Muniz borrows images from art history, media and reality, to manipulate them. Starting with materials taken from everyday life, such as chocolate, diamond, pigment, clay or dust, Vik Muniz reconstructs an image before taking the photographs, and getting rid of the originals. At first glance, the result of his manipulations do not resemble a photograph, but the works of a magician or a virtuoso. While his photographs remind us of a collective cultural heritage, they simultaneously challenge the viewer´s perception. Everything is redrawn and reinterpreted. Reinforcing our sense of familiarity toward different things, Vik Muniz deceives us and encourages our ability to look at reality and analyze it ; « the vision is primarily a form of intelligence, and recognition or identification a kind of comfort. »

Vik Muniz has had numerous international solo exhibitions, including the Brigham Young University Museum of Art (2021), ArtScience Museum in Singapore (2020), Sarasota Art Museum (2019-2020), Collection Lambert in Avignon, France (2019), Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa, USA (2019), El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, USA (2019), Foam Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2018), Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, USA (2018), Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Austria (2018), Palazzo Cini, Venice, Italy, (2017), MARCO Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico (2017), High Museum, Atlanta, USA (2016), Maurithuis, The Hague, Netherlands (2016), MUNTREF Contemporary Art Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2015), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (2014), Les Rencontres d’Arles, France (2014), CAC Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2012), MoMA PS1, New York, USA (2007), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2007), Miami Art Museum, USA (2006), Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (2004), Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain (2004), Menil Collection, Houston, USA (2002), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2001), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1998) and International Center for Photography, New York (1998).

His work is part of prestigious private and public collections, including MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York), Guggenheim Museum (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Tate Gallery (London), Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) among others.

In 2001, Vik Muniz represented Brazil at the 49th Venice Biennale. His work is the subject of the film Waste Land (2010) which received an award at the Sundance Film Festival 2010 and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2011. Since 2011, Vik Muniz is UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. In 2015, he founded Escola Vidigal, a visual arts school for children from the Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro and presented his work Lampedusa in Venice, alongside the Art Biennale.

In 2019, Vik Muniz signs a collaboration with Ruinart during his artistic residency at the Maison Ruinart in Reims (France).