Vik Muniz

VIK MUNIZ (São Paulo, 1961),
"Principia (stereoscope)", 1997.
Photographs, leather, metal, wood. One of them justified 7/100.
Works reproduced in: Vik Muniz: Obra Completa, 1987-2009, Pedro Corrêa do Lago, Catálogo Raisonné, Rio de Janeiro, 2009, p. 286,287,288,289,290,291.
One of the photographs is signed and justified by the artist.
Measurements: 26 x 33 x 20 cm (stereoscope); 9 x 18 cm (photographs, x8).
Vik Muniz, is an outstanding artist and photographer whose work has achieved both commercial success. He has represented Brazil in important biennials, such as the São Paulo Biennial in 1998 and the Venice Biennial in 2001. From an early age, Muniz showed an inclination towards the visual arts as a means of expression, motivated by his difficulties with writing. He began his professional career in the advertising industry and, after an incident in which he was accidentally injured, he used the financial compensation he received to travel to the United States. There, he settled in New York in 1984, where he began his career as a sculptor and held his first solo exhibition in 1989.
In his early work, Muniz intervened photographs of drawings, printing them in tonal media that refer to editorial processes. This technique questions the fidelity of visual memory, proposing images as mental representations rather than precise records. Beginning in the 1990s, he incorporated everyday materials such as sugar, chocolate or garbage to reinterpret works from popular culture and the old masters, in a strategy that he himself called "the worst possible illusion".
Muniz has oriented a large part of his production towards projects of social and environmental criticism. These include the series Sugar Children (1996), which portrays child workers on sugarcane plantations; Pictures of Junk (2006), monumental images made from waste; and Pictures of Garbage (2008), with materials collected at the Jardim Gramacho landfill in Rio de Janeiro. The latter project resulted in the Oscar-nominated documentary Waste Land (2010), which shows how art can make visible the dignity of marginalized populations and denounce socio-environmental problems.
Likewise, in 2014 he directed This Is Not a Ball, a documentary that explores the social impact of soccer as a cultural phenomenon. His commitment to arts education and social inclusion was recognized in 2011, when he was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.