PBJ and Diamonds

Related Content

• Miami art this week: sleeping giants
  June 2, 2011
• Marx Media
  May 19, 2011
• Artist Rivane Neuenschwander flows into MAM
  July 21, 2011
• The Hung and the Restless
  February 16, 2012
• Reader mail: "MAM board members should be indicted for stupidity"
  December 22, 2011

More About

• Vik Muniz
• Peter Boswell
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Miami Art Museum

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Brazilian artist Vik Muniz is a heck of a prankster whose works are as apt to tickle the ribs as they are to zap the noggin with their provocative nature. Muniz has garnered international kudos with his astounding photographs, images he creates with bizarre materials, including dirt, plastic toys, junk, and chocolate syrup, in a wacky subversion of representational art.

Opening tonight at 6:00 at the Miami Art Museum, “Vik Muniz: Reflex” features more than 100 of the artist’s works dating from 1988, underscoring his knack for collapsing boundaries between objects and images. “One of the things the public will love about the show is that they will be familiar with many of the images Muniz references from history, the news media, and popular culture,” says curator Peter Boswell.

The artist’s double Mona Lisa, concocted from peanut butter and jelly, doesn’t come with a glass of milk but promises to leave viewers smacking their chops. A fabulous portrait of Liz Taylor is rendered in diamonds, natch. “What most people will get a kick out of is how smart he is about encouraging others to analyze how what one sees is often illusory,” Boswell explains of the traveling show MAM has organized. Running through Sunday, February 12, Muniz’s exhibit will have the town craning upward to see Cloud Cloud, a spectacular work in which the artist converts the blue yonder into his canvas, using a skywriting plane for the brushstrokes. Call 305-375-3000, or visit www.miamiartmuseum.org.
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: Feb. 10. Continues through May 28