Show Me the Muniz

Vik Muniz is a genius (hint to anyone who may be on the nominating committee for the MacArthur Foundation). His talk at the MFA last night was one of the best artist talks I have ever attended. Although the talk was structured around his work, it was really about perception. For him, the cross-over from seeing an overall image (which is something your brain constructs) to seeing what it really is really is (for example, a photo of twisted wire instead of a pencil drawing) is magical.
However, what struck me most was the underlying social aspects to his work. Not social in a conventional sense, but social in terms of making art accessible to everyone. He recalled some of his most cherished memories, which were bringing people to museums who had never been before and of cab drivers talking about his work to him. Muniz said that the best art appeals to the most people, which is so true but often forgotten in an art world full of inside jokes. He even has a project in Brazil in which he creates work with impoverished garbage dump workers and gives them 100% of the proceeds. Being able to actually create a better life for someone is really the best art.
After the talk, we took him and his son out to dinner. While he didn't create any works from the food left on his plate, he told many stories that we will never forget. Art is about the stories. Art is about the people.

Evening of Art (Sheffield and Muniz)

Looking forward to an evening of art.

First stop is the opening for an exhibit by Stephen Sheffield at The Achilles Project in Boston, entitled "A new look at some past & present work." Note: if you are reading this before the opening tonight, you have to be on the guest list. Video of the installation of the works is located at: http://stephensheffield.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/install/


Stephen's work can be seen around the Boston area in different venues. Judi Rotenberg gallery represents him and he has a great installation at Eastern Standard.



Then, I am lucky enough to be able to attend a talk being given at the MFA by Vik Muniz (http://www.mfa.org/calendar/event.asp?eventkey=35610). As many know, Vik Muniz often uses somewhat unconventional materials to recreate well-known works of art or images, often of historical images. Some of my favorites are the pictures of pigments and pictures of chocolate (e.g., I especially like how the name Chocolate Pollack sounds).

Vik Muniz gives us a Rube Goldberg experience at MOMA

Four of the Print Collectors managed to make the final weekend of MOMA's Artist's Choice + Vik Muniz = REBUS (and we even managed to get one of the MFA's curators to take the spin with us). What fun! We're all Muniz fans, but this exhibition did not contain any of Muniz' art, rather it consisted entirely of pieces chosen by Muniz from MOMA's permanent collection. The individual pieces -- all interesting -- were not the point; rather the relationship between one piece and the next (and the next) created a logical adventure.

As an example, a photograph of a man on a subway holding a goldfish by Philip-Lorca di Corcia, was followed by a yellow-gold hued painting, by Ellsworth Kelly, followed by a "Yolk" sculpture by Kiki Smith, then an egg timer designed by Rodolfo Bonett0 -- (Goldfish -> Gold -> golden egg yolk -> egg timer).

Some of the transitions were easier to guess than others and I'll admit it took me a while to realize that Vija Celmins stone sculpture, followed by a pair of Henckels shears, then Martin Creed's sheet of paper crumpled into a ball translated to: rock, scissors, paper!

Muniz managed to keep us guessing through 82 works ending finishing up with Ed Ruscha's "The End" and finally an EXIT sign designed by Wamble, Finley and Thorne.