Galerie Xippas is hitting hard this early fall with a major solo exhibition by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. On this occasion, the two spaces of the gallery were entirely taken over by several of his recent works from the “Surfaces” series. Made between the end of last year and this year, the exhibited works celebrate cubism while reinventing it through photo collage. With his own ingenuity, Vik Muniz constantly manages to play with our perception and destabilize our eye, thus increasing our curiosity. By deliberately blurring the boundaries between painting and photography, reality and illusion, his unique pieces destabilize as much as they fascinate. A journey through a new kind of trompe l’oeil that questions our relationship to images and art. Not to be missed.
“Is it a Picasso? Or a Braque? ask passers-by in front of the Galerie Xippas space on Rue du Vieux-Billard. “And there, it looks like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, doesn’t it? » So yes, it is indeed the Starry Night at the bottom of the refined space of the Rue des Sablons, but no it is not the one painted by Vincent Van Gogh; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York treasures it. This one is very recent, it has just been produced by Vik Muniz who is once once more trying to disturb us by reinventing the most famous works in the history of art. After having transformed several key works by drawing them from melted chocolate such as the portrait of Marilyn Monore by Andy Warhol or the Ecstasy of Saint Thérèse by Bernini (visible in the Rue des Sablons space), and following having returned to masterpieces from the greatest museums such as the Mona Lisa and Las Meninas by Vélasquez in the Verso series, the Brazilian virtuoso is this time tackling cubist works and their most famous representatives.
Vik Muniz, Woman with Phlox, following Albert Gleizes, 2022, mixed media, 103.9 x 129.4 cm
Framed in their wooden frames, the six Cubist-inspired works contain a world in themselves. From a distance, they look like imposing paintings. Up close, they are collages. The confusion is total. Are they paintings, collages or photographs? In fact, it is a subtle mixture of all these techniques. Vik Muniz mixes mediums and approaches with disconcerting freedom and virtuosity. His works are the product of several painted, photographed, transformed, rephotographed and reworked images. An almost magical process of its own that creates an absolutely unique trompe l’oeil effect. By playing with our perceptions, the artist questions our vision of reality and challenges our eye. And while painters like Picasso, Braque, Gleizes and Juan Gris developed cubism in response to the flat plane induced by photography, Vik Muniz manages to free it from its two-dimensional plane thanks to his so singular way of photographing different layers. pictorial to create a unique composite image. His unique and innovative works appeal to different senses of the viewer. Thus he is invited to look at the images beyond the simple look, by using his feelings and his memory. Vik Muniz explains: “When you move your eye, you animate the world”. And he does not believe so well! By arousing curiosity, he encourages us to move around the work because the photo is never truly static: all visual stimulation is moving. A striking artistic journey that revisits our perception of art, photography, collage, painting and art history in general. To discover absolutely until October 29 at the Galerie Xippas.
Vik Muniz, Seated Woman in Garden, 2022 Technique mixte, 136,9 x 113,9 cm
Born in 1961 in São Paulo, Vik Muniz began by studying at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado before leaving Brazil for the United States where he began his career as an artist in the early 1980s. differentiates himself from others by imposing his personal style, mixing “low-tech” elements that he photographs or by reinventing the most emblematic works of art. By transforming materials as diverse as they are astonishing, which he then photographs, Vik Muniz produces disconcerting and ambiguous images that titillate our perceptions and question our relationship to images, to sight, to reality and to illusion. Today, he lives and works between Rio de Janeiro and New York. His works are part of many renowned public and private collections including the MoMA in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Daros Latin America collection in Zurich. He is represented by the Xippas galleries in Geneva, Paris, and Punta Del Este. In parallel with his work as an artist, he undertakes actions and participatory projects to help the Brazilian community. His work was also the subject of the film “Waste Land” which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010, and which was nominated for the Oscar for best documentary film in 2011 (just that!). An artist with a big heart who perfectly masters the art of illusion.
