Vic Muniz

Synopsis: This exhilarating overview of the acclaimed artist Vik Muniz traces the development of his work from the very beginning of his career to his most recent astonishing large-scale works. Vik Muniz is celebrated for his joyful, quirky, dark, and occasionally mind-boggling work that riffs on popular photographic imagery, referencing social icons and cultural realities and juxtaposing these themes in fascinating ways. This book features an extraordinary selection of works that span Muniz's entire career--more than 150 color illustrations display the enormous range of Muniz's work and the disorienting and expansive logic of his world. International icon Elizabeth Taylor is portrayed with diamonds with as much reverence as Brazilian landfill workers whose portraits are created from the trash they collect. The Mona Lisa is recreated in peanut butter and jelly. Artist Jackson Pollock is depicted in his studio in a work made entirely out of chocolate syrup. Throughout, Muniz's irreverent and thought-provoking approach to his subjects reveals the shaky underpinnings of universally accepted "truths." About the Author: ARTHUR OLLMAN teaches photography at San Diego State University where he was Director of the School of Art, Design and Art History. He was Founding Director of the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego where he curated more than 100 exhibitions.