Vik Muniz. Russian Project: Personal Exhibition
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Vik Muniz is an internationally acclaimed artist and photographer based in Rio de Janeiro and New York. Known for his inventive use of materials and conceptual rigor, Muniz explores how images are constructed, circulated, and perceived in contemporary culture.
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Vik Muniz
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Drawing on postmodernist aesthetics, Muniz reimagines iconic works from art history and popular culture, emphasizing the primacy of concept over material preciousness. Using unconventional media—including dust, sugar, chocolate syrup, caviar, diamonds, garbage, toy soldiers, and magazine clippings — he reconstructs familiar images, which he then photographs in high resolution, resulting in large-format prints that offer a new, layered visual experience.
In the Pictures of Pigment series, Muniz recreates masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Piet Mondrian, and Henri Matisse by evenly distributing dry pigment across a flat surface. These ephemeral compositions are preserved only through photography, merging painterly tradition with photographic finality.
For the Gordian Puzzles series, he assembles intricate collages from jigsaw puzzle pieces printed with their original images but cut at different angles. The resulting compositions appear complete but remain visually unresolved, prompting the viewer to question perception and coherence.
The Pictures of Caviar series employs black caviar—a symbol of opulence and a perishable medium. To preserve the raw intensity of color and texture throughout the process of image creation, Muniz works with extreme speed, completing each composition in a matter of minutes while maintaining formal clarity and affinity with the original.
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Exhibited works
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Vik MunizConversation with the Finance Inspector about Poetry, after Rodchenko, 2007Chromogenic print mounted on aluminumSmall size: 165 x 122 cm
Large size: 244 x 180 cm
Edition: 6+4AP -
Vik MunizDemon, after Vrubel, 2007Chromogenic print mounted on aluminumSmall size: 122 × 216 cm
Large size: 167 × 302 cm -
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Vik MunizOld Suckers, after Rodchenko, 2007Framed chromogenic print mounted on aluminumLarge size: 267 x 180 cm
Small size: 180 x 122 cm
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Vik MunizPortrait of a boy in painted shirt, after Ilya Mashkov, 2007Chromogenic print mounted on aluminumLarge: 267 x 180 cm
Small: 160 x 122 cm -
Vik MunizPro Eto, after Rodchenko, 2007Framed chromogenic print mounted on aluminumLarge size: 274,3 x 180 cm
Small size: 185,4 x 122 cm -
Vik MunizSuprematist composition: eight red rectangles, after Kazimir Malevich, 2007Chromogenic print mounted on aluminumSmall size: 142.2 x 122 cm
Large size: 213.4 x 180 cm -
Vik MunizSuprematist Composition: White on White, after Kazimir Malevich, 2007Framed chromogenic print mounted on aluminumLarge size: 180 x 180 cm
Small size: 122 x 122 cm
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Time magazine named Vik Muniz one of the leading artists of the new millennium, while The New York Times described his work as “an idea wrapped in a shell of humor and surprise,” recommending it as “a reliable antidepressant.” Muniz’s practice consistently engages with the popularization of art, driven by the belief that art should not be confined to an elite domain but serve as a catalyst for social and cultural dialogue. His playful yet meticulously crafted works bridge the gap between viewer and image, between the immediacy of material and the complexity of representation. Accessible, imaginative, and grounded in a deep knowledge of visual history, Muniz’s art functions as both spectacle and reflection.
Selected Museum Exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA
Seattle Asian Art Museum, Seattle, WA
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin, Ireland
MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
The Menil Collection, Houston, TX
Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
International Center of Photography, New York, NY -
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Publications
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Artist
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