Vik Muniz
dal 12/4/2006 al 26/5/2006
Segnalato da
12/4/2006
Vik Muniz
Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
Pictures of Junk. The artist has chosen domestic and industrial detritus to reinterpret old Master paintings of the Greek and Roman gods. Muniz's arrangement of everything from hub caps, tires, squashed coke cans, pipes, coils of wire and broken appliances, to an upright piano, is photographed from an elevated gantry.
Pictures of Junk
During the month of April, Rena Bransten Gallery (77 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA
94108) will present an exhibition of new photographs by Vik Muniz.
For his Pictures of Junk Muniz has chosen domestic and industrial detritus to
reinterpret old Master paintings of the Greek and Roman gods by artists ranging from
Titian to Velasquez. Using a warehouse floor as his canvas, Muniz's arrangement of
everything from hub caps, tires, squashed coke cans, nuts, bolts, gaskets, pipes,
coils of wire and broken appliances, to an upright piano, is photographed from an
elevated gantry, the height reducing these objects to the size of brushstrokes.
The structural elements in Muniz's work whether wire or toys or, as in these images,
junk, often play against the ultimate subjects of the photographs creating a
provocative dynamism. Here the irony of using rusty detritus, in itself a symbol
for the impermanence of life and the misguided emphasis placed on material
possessions, to commemorate the glory of the ancients is too pointed to be ignored.
If Thomas Bulfinch's "recyclying" of myths and legends in his book The Age of Fable
was intended as moral instruction for his and subsequent generations, then Muniz's
rearticulations can be seen as a parable about the state of today's morals and
values.
Vik Muniz was born in 1961 in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
and Sao Paolo. Muniz is currently the subject of Reflex organized by the Miami Art
Museum, Miami (2006 and traveling), and has had solo exhibitions at Fundacio'n
Telefo'nica, Madrid, Spain (2005-06); MACRO Museo D'Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome
(2004); and the 49th Venice Biennale, Brazilian Pavilion (2001). His work has also
been included in group exhibitions such as Material Matters, Herbert F. Johnson
Museum of Art, Cornell University (2005); About Face: Photographic Portraits from
the Collection; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Moving Pictures (2004); the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2002), and the 2000 Biennial Exhibition,
Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art, New York.
Reception: Thursday, April 13, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Rena Bransten Gallery
77 Geary Street - San Francisco
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday 10.30am to 5.30pm, Saturdays 11am to 5pm.