Seeing Double

Muniz was born in 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil. Before he learned to write, he drew pictures in his notebook. “For many years that became a very marking trait of my personality: I was the kid who made the drawings,” the artist recalls.

Muniz moved to New York City in 1983. He often visited art galleries and was inspired by the works he saw. He started making sculptures out of everyday materials and photographing the results.

In 1996, Muniz visited the Caribbean island of Saint Kitts. He befriended a group of local children whose parents worked on sugar plantations. Back in New York, Muniz made portraits of the kids like the one above. To represent their sweetness, he drew in white sugar poured onto black paper. The sugar forms the background and the highlights. The dark paper showing through creates the shadows.

In 1961, Muniz was born in São Paolo, Brazil. He drew pictures in his notebook before he learned to write. That’s how people remembered him. “I was the kid who made the drawings,” he says.

Muniz moved to New York City in 1983. The art he saw inspired him. He began to make sculptures out of ordinary materials. In 1996, Muniz visited Saint Kitts, a Caribbean island. He met a group of local children whose parents worked on sugar plantations. When he returned to NYC, Muniz made portraits of the kids like the one above. To represent their sweetness, he poured white sugar onto black paper and drew in the sugar. The dark paper creates the shadows. The sugar forms the background and the highlights.

Throughout his career, Muniz has explored appropriation, or incorporating other artists’ images into his artwork. 

After his trip to Saint Kitts, he began re-creating well-known works of art using food. “There’s no such thing as a new visual idea,” Muniz has said. “There are only an infinite amount of variations of very good existing [ideas].”

Medusa Marinara, Muniz’s 1997 work shown above, depicts the mythical snake-haired monster Medusa. The work’s circular shape and Medusa’s pained expression mimic a 16th-century painting of her by the Italian painter Caravaggio. Muniz composes his Medusa with spaghetti and marinara sauce. His use of food gives the work a more playful feeling than Caravaggio’s original portrait.

Muniz explores appropriation. That means he uses other artists’ images in new ways in his work. After his trip to Saint Kitts, he started using food to re-create popular works of art. “There’s no such thing as a new visual idea,” Muniz said. “There’s only an infinite amount of variations of very good existing [ideas].”

Muniz’s 1997 Medusa Marinara is shown above. It depicts Medusa, a monster with snake for hair from ancient mythology. The artist based it on a painting of Medusa by the 16th-century Italian painter Caravaggio. Both works are circular, and Medusa wears the same frightening expression in each one. But Muniz created his Medusa with spaghetti and marinara sauce! These materials make the work more playful.

Muniz also explores collage. To create his 2020 work Magic Kingdom (Postcards from Nowhere), above, he spent years collecting vintage postcards and photos. He tore them up and arranged the pieces to form an image more than 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide. From afar, the colorful scraps blend together to depict fireworks at a Disney theme park—but when viewers step closer, they can pick out individual images in the photo mosaic, including flowers, birds, people, and more.

The layered work reflects Muniz’s lifelong interest in finding meaning in the commonplace. How might this trace back to the artist’s youth in Brazil?

Muniz also explores collage. In 2020, he created Magic Kingdom (Postcards from Nowhere), above. He spent years collecting old postcards and photos. Then he tore them and arranged the pieces to create the image in the collage. The work is more than 5 feet tall and 7 feet wide. From far away, the scraps blend into an image of fireworks at a Disney theme park. But when viewers look closer, they see individual images in the photo mosaic. They include flowers, birds, and people.

Muniz’s work has multiple layers of meaning. How do you think his experiences of communicating in Brazil influence his art?