Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz is a New York based artist who experiments with media. His works are very interesting and consist of objects arranged to make an image which he then photographs the arrangement resulting in the final piece. He began his career as a sculptor in the late 1980’s after relocating from Brazil to Chicago and later to New York. Muniz’s work begins to take on its mature form with The Best of Life (1990) where he drew pictures of photographs included in the coffee table book “The Best of Life” from memory after losing the book in a move. The drawings were subsequently photographed and shown as photographs, a practice that Muniz continues.
Muniz followed “The Best of Life” with Equivalents (1993), Pictures of Wire (1994), and Pictures of Thread (1995) in which he developed the other aspect of his characteristic style by making the drawings out of readily recognizable non-art materials such as cotton, wire, or thread. This process of making a drawing out of a nontraditional material and then photographing it has been central to Muniz’s work ever since. Since then Muniz has gone on to work in many materials such as chocolate syrup, caviar, diamonds, junk, earthworks, etc. His way of art just fascinates me in such a way that it is almost unbelievable that he is able to produce a piece out of an everyday object. That is what I call imagination and creativeness to the extreme. I think that out of the many artists we have learned about in class, to me Muniz seems to be the most talented. After looking through his website and seeing all of the pieces he had created, not one of them was dull to me. I could recognize what all of the pieces were supposed to be and they were just all very put together. I would have never in a million years guessed that Sigmund Freud was painted in chocolate or that a landscape was draw out in thread. The talent and mind this man must have must be exquisite.





















-Jessica

Frat Party Art

Last weekend I took a trip to Syracuse to visit my friend and we went to a fraternity party. When I walked into the party I was surprised to find art all around me. The theme of the party was "I'm Famous" so the frat boys put up white sheets around the frat house and they spray painted pictures of basketball players, actors/actresses, Hollywood stars of fame, bubble letters of names...etc. I immediately thought of this class because I thought that this art I was seeing is a form of modern art. It was a really neat thing to be able to look at the art that was suppose to be up just for a party but I actually appreciated it and realized that hard work must have been put into the artwork. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of it.

--Rachel

I never really thought that food could be made into art, but after seeing the artwork by Vik Muniz I realized that it could. I think that his artwork is very original and interesting, that he can take sugar and make a detailed portrait out of it. Everythime I eat pasta now i think of how Muniz was able to make noodles into art. I also really liked the fake cloud that he made over NYC; I would have never thought that a fake cloud could be considered art, but the picture definitely caught my attention and I think it is a great idea that was difficult to make. Vik Muniz is definitely one fo my favorite artists that we have looked at in class.

--Rachel

Celebrity Art Collection in the Media

From the many films and a podcast that we listened to over our course of the year, I am able to see daily how art is effected by who buys it and or who sees or wears it! Recently, pop and r&b singer, Rhianna, has purchased over 34 grand in artwork by pop cartoonist, Todd Goldman. The star is seen in the gallery of the now very famous Todd Goldman because of the purchases made by Rhianna. Todd's art collection values are skyrocketed to the high hundred of thousands because of the publicity that he has received from twitter, face book, and all other media sources/ blogs as well. Anyone who has already invested in this artist is looking to see millions if this trend keeps happening of celebrities such as Rhianna, that keep purchasing the artwork and making the value increase so that very little "normal" people would have the luxury of owning Todd's artwork. And although, many people have seen various pieces by Todd either on shirts or on different odds and ends, the price of his artwork and value has been measured by society's value in what the celebrities by and not that they actually like the artwork.

Purchases of Rihanna are below:

Below are some of the artwork done by Todd Goldman.

-Jazmine

Reaching Perfection....

Recently, in class, we have been discussing various types of art movements. Relational art is based on relational aesthetics with the artist not really having a whole art work in their mind but bits and pieces of how to utilize many different concepts. In this last art movement that we have examined, artists choose many diverse intersubjects and collectively puts it together as relational art. Artist, Andrea Zittel, has fully embraced the concept of relational art by even going to extremes to live her life in her own pieces. In the much like attitude of Marina Abramovic, Andrea has restricted herself to her artwork. During an interview, Andrea explains her obsession with always trying to reach perfection in each of the projects she has taken on. Professing her epiphany, Andrea tells all about the moment she realizes that everyone things they want perfection when in reality no one ever does., we just want to keep working towards it, so we won't get bored in life. The artist also mentions very particular living guidelines that she follows such as wearing only one outfit that she made for a whole season. Andrea states that it is a social stigma on wearing the same thing all the time; however, she feels that it should be that the stigma on wearing different things all the time or that people should not even care anything about others and what they do.

-Jazmine

The art piece that I would have bought is the picture "Prospect Park #2" done by Joseph O Holmes. I thought that there was something very peaceful about the picture, it made me feel calm. I enjoy snow, and there is always something about seeing the outdoors after a fresh snow has just fallen. It will always remind me of playing in it when I was a child. So this picture caught my attention because it not only brought on a calming emotion for me but it also brought back childhood memories.

--Rachel

20X200 Assignment.

As I was browsing through this website, I came across this picture called Gosling Lake by Kurt Tong. It really got my attention because I have always been interested in the beach theme and lakes with the sunset. For some reason it draws me to the photo. Even when I doodle in my notebook I always find myself drawing sunsets and waterfronts. It kind of relaxes me and makes me focus on the warm sand and cool water and how much I would love to be there than probably where I am in the first place.

--Jessica

Dave Hickey

I enjoyed Dave Hickey's lecture because he made it comical. He made it easy to listen to and understand the things he wanted to get across to the audience. Although he is an art critic, he went about talking about art in a different way than what we are used to hearing in class. I liked how he mentioned the first point in being that people like art better than money. From what we have been talking about in class recently, it can be seen that people are going to all lengths to dish out great sums of money to purchase a particular piece of art. Once they have collected one piece of that art, it only goes on from there so they feel the need to buy more. He also mentions that there are artists that like money better than art. They make their pieces to the satisfy the people who are interested in buying. I liked how he started asking question after question about how the dealer stakes a reputation of compromising to be right and never be wrong and to gain the piece that they want. They all have different opinions and out takes on various pieces. He mentions that this world never exists, part of that being in the late 70s from when art started becoming a public funding so that the museum disappeared. You could no longer see paintings of the original piece. This transformation of the art world is now an art market place. He states that if the art does not change nobody is going to buy any pieces. I enjoy how he mentions that he is bored with the pieces and he wants a normal artwork. He says he loves when people buy art and asks if that piece is worth that person's standard. But he questions whether that person is purchasing it just to purchase it or if they really have the focus and interest of the artwork. At the end he just wants people to go out and buy it but to aknowledge what they are buying and make sure they are buying it for the right reasons.

--Jessica

Art Collector Assignment on 2x200.com

As a art collector browsing on 2x200.com, I spotted a unique painting by Jessica Snow called Paradigm Shift (above). Initially, I was attracted to other works by the artist; however, I decided to choose differently and go with the painting below. I really like the colors and the shapes that is incorporated in this painting. I also like the fact that since I have a biology background that this artwork mirrors the shape and structure of a jelly fish. This simple but complex painting plays with the eye as it seems to dazzle or move when stared at for long periods of time. Other works of art by the artist is going to become the next Picasso because of the shapes and colors that are involved in each of Jessica's art works.


- Jazmine Still

Dave Hickey's Pod Cast

Dave Hickey's comical personality during his speech allowed many dirty secrets about the art world to come out into the limelight. Interestingly, his final thought, "Go out and Buy Shit," is just what the present art buyers are interested in and are literally doing at all costs. Since art is prevalent everywhere many people will buy art at any cost s that it is appraised. The term the art bubble is referred to the arts and artists that suck money into the art world for no real reason at all. Investors are simply giving away tons and loads of money to these artists at art autions when the prices for the same artwork is only a fraction of what its being valued off for. Powerful museums was starting to lose money until they found a way to earn money from the community. The exhibits that are displayed are always going to make money for the museum. On the other hand, objects that are just sold are going to make money but not for the museum for the artist thats being sold. Greedy artists are making millions off of art that really is not as highly vavlued as the economy is making them out to be. Therefore, all of the middle men who used to make money from selling or showing art to the masses are cancelled out. As Dave starting question probed: What happened to the art rules? I think there maybe was not any to begin with but just the fact that art business simply what it was made out to be...a money maker or as Dave termed hyper liquedity.

-Jazmine Still

Collections

These past few classes, we have been talking about how the idea of collecting art has changed over time. I find this extremely interesting yet crazy in how people will go to certain extremes to buy a particular piece. I guess I am in the wrong business because it seems like many of these pieces that people want to buy will pay millions to purchase it. To be able to pay that amount of money to have a specific artwork hanging up in a person's house seems to be crazy to me. But I guess like any other collector's item, people who start collecting art make it as a hobby and wants more and more to add.


In class, you had asked us if we had collected anything when we were younger, or still are collecting. I heard various responses and was astonished at how many people made it a hobby to collect a certain item. My brother is twelve years older than me. He was the one who I looked up to as I was growing up,but it was a challenge to find similar things we both were interested in. When he went away to college, he used to travel a lot. And since he was always interested in foreign money he started collecting it as he traveled to different countries. It was not until after college when he was in the navy and stationed in Japan for four years, where he started traveling even more. That was when he began to send us post cards and letters from the various countries he had visited, along with money from that country. He wanted my sister and I to start a collection for him and put the money in a show book. Although it was not until after that I realized that I started to become interested in the coins and bills he was sending over. It was like a way of connecting with him while he was away for so long. My sister and I would get so excited when we received a letter addressed to us in the mail from him. We would always try to guess where it was coming from and what we would find in the closed letter. My brother's money collection brought us closer while he was away. Since I am home for break, I recently looked at the show book my sister and I put together. It not only holds a traditional collection of money from different countries, it also holds a sentimental value that my brother, sister, and I will always share.
My younger sister is only five years younger than me so it was easier to find things to share. Before she was born and even years after, I used to collect marbles. I loved the color and the glass feeling of them. But as my sister got older, I got over marbles and put that collection away. Since my younger sister always followed whatever I would do, she had started her own collection of collecting bouncy-balls, the little colorful balls that you would get out of a 25 cent machine at the supermarket. I do not know if her collection stemmed from my original collection of marbles but I thought it was pretty unique. Every time we would go to the store with my mom, we would pool our quarters together and race to the machine and use the money to get as many balls as possible. My sister kept these balls in a colorful little shoe box that we had decorated specifically for the balls. It is kind of a weird collection but it was something that was fun for her and eventually for me as well. Most of the times, the bouncy-balls were untouched. At other times, my sister and I would create games in the hallway and set up boxes and time each other on how many we would get in. Stupid little childish games, but I don't think I will ever forget those moments. Especially when my parents had enough of hearing all of the bouncy-balls bouncing around on the hard wood floors. I guess it would get kind of irritating after a long day at work. But again it was a way my sister and I got along and shared a collection.

--Jessica