Vik Muniz: A Brief History of Art

1 Feb-5 Apr 2022

Overview

Inspired by artists across centuries and artistic movements, from Sandro Botticelli and Francisco Goya to Van Gogh and Gerhard Richter, this exhibition features re-imaginings of famous masterpieces from the Early Renaissance through to the 21st century. Muniz uses a wide range of unconventional materials, including dust, sugar, chocolate, diamonds, caviar, toys, junk, scrap metal, dry pigment, vintage postcards and magazine shreds to recreate and reference iconic imagery. These material constructions are photographed, then either magnified or shrunken in scale, with the final work of art becoming a documentation of his conceptual and artistic processes. Reconstructing images that tap into the viewer’s subconscious visual repository, these works ask us to reconsider the familiar imagery in its altered form.

This exhibition brings together a selection of work featuring the artist’s most iconic and evocative images and it is held across two venues: Ben Brown Fine Arts’ London flagship gallery at 12 Brook's Mews and Claridge’s ArtSpace, also on Brook's Mews.

Artists