Saturday, June 8, through Sunday, September 29
Exhibit Introduction: Thursday, June 13, 6:30 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
Works by a critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and absolutely singular talent will be on display at Davenport's Figge Art Museum June 8 through September 29, with the exhibit Vik Muniz: Hand Remade showcasing the one-of-a-kind gifts of the Brazilian photographer and mixed-media artist who has inspired both global raves and an Academy Award-nominated documentary feature.
Initially a sculptor, Muniz, a native of São Paolo, grew interested with the photographic representations of his work, eventually focusing completely on photography. Primarily working with unconventional materials such as tomato sauce, diamonds, magazine clippings, chocolate syrup, dust, and dirt, he employs these items for the re-composition of iconic images from art history and pop culture. These painstakingly crafted constructions are temporary, while the photographs he takes of them constitute the final artwork. Adding to this transfiguration of materials, Muniz also alters their scale, creating monumental artworks with a mosaic of materials as fine as a grain of sand.
Pictures of Garbage, the subject of the 2010 Oscar-nominated documentary Waste Land, is one of Muniz's most recognized series. In one of the world's largest garbage dumps – Jardim Gramacho outside of Rio de Janeiro – Muniz relied on local catadores or garbage pickers to supply him with discarded toilet seats, shoes, and other refuse to recreate his famous works of art piece by piece. Meanwhile, in his recent series Handmade, Muniz worked with materials such as paper, rope, and fabric to create geometric compositions.
Photography is central to Muniz's constructing of the imagery, but he also integrates physical materials into the final artwork. Fusing reality and representation, Muniz may layer ripped paper over a photograph of ripped paper or adhere rope to an image of an object bound with rope, and in Hand Remade, a closed-circuit gallery interactive will allow Figge visitors to try making a large mosaic image of their own. The exhibit also features the Pictures of Garbage series, a gift of Brent Sikkema, as well as recent work from the Handmade series, courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins in New York.
Vik Muniz: Hand Remade will be on display at the Figge June 8 through September 29, and at 6:30 p.m. on June 13, the museum's assistant curator Vanessa Sage will officially introduce the exhibition in a third-floor presentation. Regular museum hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays) and Sundays noon to 5 p.m., admission to the exhibit is free with $4-10 museum entrance, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 or visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
