VIK MUNIZ
Born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1961. Even though he did not receive any formal fine arts education, Muniz started his career from sculpture in New York a year after moving to the United States in 1983. Currently his main form of expression is photography, but his act of production as an artist is found in various projects captured in photographs. He hardly applies usual painting materials, as it is seen in his works such as “Pictures of Chocolate” (painting with melted chocolate), “Pictures of Soil” (painting using soil, stones, sand, etc.), “Pictures of Dust” (collecting dust and dirt and used for painting), “Pictures of Diamond” (painting with diamond particles), “Pictures of Junk” (collecting large amount of waste materials to create a geoglyph). However, one will undoubtedly feel that they are precisely “painted” when looking closer to his works. Similarly, his recent approach that is close to a photomontage or a collage shows his rare visual talent for achieving realism beyond imagination while avoiding the usual route. Muniz was the representative artist of the Brazilian Pavilion of the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001 and has held several solo exhibitions at important institutes since the early stage of his career. His works are in the collections of major museums around the world and is often invited to lectures and teach at art universities in many countries.