Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz (São Paulo, SP - 1961)

Vik Muniz is a Brazilian visual artist, widely recognized for his work as a photographer, illustrator, painter, and engraver. Born Vicente José de Oliveira Muniz in São Paulo on December 20, 1961, he is the son of Vicente Lopes and Maria Celeste de Oliveira Muniz, both from Pernambuco. He currently lives in the United States, where he has developed and consolidated an internationally recognized artistic career, becoming one of the most prominent names in contemporary Brazilian art.

A graduate in Advertising from the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP) in São Paulo, Vik Muniz moved to New York in 1983 after being convicted in an incident involving an accidental shooting. The move marked the beginning of his journey into the North American art scene, where he began experimenting with sculpture and photography, developing a unique style that blends references from art history, pop culture, and social issues.

Since 1988, Vik Muniz's work has explored themes such as memory, perception, and the representation of images, addressing questions about art, media, and the construction of visual reality. The artist became widely known for his use of unusual and ephemeral materials in his compositions—among them sugar, liquid chocolate, dulce de leche, ketchup, hair gel, trash, dust, demolition debris, and electronic scrap. In his portrait of Sigmund Freud, for example, he used chocolate syrup to create the image. His works are meticulously assembled with these materials and then photographed, transforming temporary installations into permanent images.

In his series The Best of Life (1988), Vik Muniz recreated from memory iconic photographs published in Life magazine, marking the beginning of his investigation into the circulation and retention of images in collective memory. From this series onward, the artist began to deepen the dialogue between the ephemeral and the permanent, questioning how images are perceived, remembered, and reproduced in contemporary society.

In subsequent series, such as "Images of Wire," "Images of Earth," "Images of Chocolate," and "Sugar Children" (1996), Vik Muniz continued to challenge the limits of traditional art by using unconventional and often perishable materials. In "Sugar Children," for example, he traveled to the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, where he photographed the children of sugar plantation workers. Back in New York, he recreated the portraits of these children using different types of sugar spread on brown paper, photographing the final compositions. The work generated controversy at the time, but was released for sale two years later, with a price tag of R$4,000.50.

In subsequent years, Vik Muniz expanded his production to large-scale works, including images made from trash piles and landscape interventions, such as geoglyphs. One of the most iconic works from this period is portrayed in the award-winning documentary Waste Land (2010), directed by Lucy Walker. The film follows Vik Muniz as he collaborates with recyclable material collectors at the Jardim Gramacho landfill in Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro. It received widespread international recognition, winning awards at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals, including the Amnesty International Award and the Audience Award at Panorama. The documentary was also nominated for the 2011 Oscar for Best Documentary. Besides the visual arts, Vik Muniz also works with earthworks (soil interventions), reflecting on ways to record and preserve ephemeral works. His work carries a strong ethical and social dimension: in 2007, at the 81st Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, he offered chocolate portraits for US$110,000, the proceeds of which were donated entirely to the Rio de Janeiro Space Center—an institution dedicated to promoting art among vulnerable children and adolescents. “The poor need money. We need to help them directly. I don't believe in political art. Raising awareness: you have the newspaper for that,” the artist stated at the time.

Vik Muniz's career includes solo and group exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the PS1 Contemporary Art Museum (New York), the Seattle Art Museum, the Musée d’Art Contemporain (Montreal), the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum (Tampa), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia. In 2007, he participated in the exhibition The Hours – Visual Art of Contemporary Latin America, held at this Australian museum. He also published the book "Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer" (2005, Aperture Foundation), an annotated compilation of his work and creative processes, now considered a benchmark in studies of his work.

Vik Muniz's work is part of important public and private collections in cities such as San Francisco, Madrid, Paris, Moscow, and Tokyo, as well as institutions such as the Tate Modern and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Getty Institute in Los Angeles, the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM-SP), and the Inhotim Institute in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais. The work "Boom" (2002), from the series "The Sarzedo Drawings," a silver gelatin photograph with a flip, is on display.

Recognized for his advocacy for art and education, Vik Muniz was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, representing causes related to culture and the democratization of access to the visual arts. His commitment to the social impact of art and his constant aesthetic innovation make Vik Muniz one of the central figures of contemporary Brazilian art on the international stage.

Vik Muniz's works are in private collections and in important galleries around the world, notably in cities such as San Francisco, Madrid, Paris, Moscow, and Tokyo. Vik Muniz's photographs are also part of the collections of prestigious international museums, such as the Tate Modern and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Getty Institute in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in São Paulo. The work "Boom," from the series "The Sarzedo Drawings" (2002), a silver gelatin photograph with a turning, is on display at the Inhotim Museum in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais.

Critical Commentary

Vik Muniz studied Advertising at the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP) in São Paulo and, in 1983, moved to New York, where he began to dedicate himself to photography after a brief stint working in sculpture. Vik Muniz is widely recognized for his photographic series, often recreations of classic works of art, produced with unusual materials such as perforated paper, cotton, magazine clippings, liquid chocolate, sugar, and dust.

In this series, created with liquid chocolate, Vik Muniz recreates images such as Caravaggio's Descent from the Cross and a Hans Namuth photograph depicting Jackson Pollock in action. The compositions, made with eyedroppers, are photographed and then destroyed, highlighting the ephemeral nature of the work and the illusion of visual representation.

In 2000, Vik Muniz released the book Clayton Days, featuring photographs taken during his residency at the Frick Art & Historical Center in Pittsburgh. The series depicts daily life in the Henry Clay Frick home, with a lowered perspective reminiscent of a child's gaze. The work reveals the artist's interest in family photos and the preservation of environments as memories, resulting in images that form a fictional, non-linear narrative.

In the series Pictures of Magazines (2003), Vik Muniz creates portraits of figures such as Pelé, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and an anonymous flower vendor. Using magazine fragments, the artist disassembles and recomposes photographic images to construct faces in meticulous detail.

With his innovative approach to photography, Vik Muniz questions the limits of representing reality, connecting it to drawing and painting in unconventional ways. His works generate estrangement and invite the viewer to reflect on photography as a visual language, building a unique relationship between artist, work, and audience.

Reviews

Nelson Aguilar
Memory as a Starting Point and the Fight Against Forgetting

"First of all, Vik establishes a relationship between drawing and photography, between memory and the present, since he takes as his starting point and reminiscence a famous image, for example, that of John Lennon in Manhattan. He draws the cliché from memory. At this stage, the most sought-after skill is that of retention, as if all reproductions of that image had disappeared and as if we relied solely on Vik's talent and memory to bring it back to life. Sometimes he interrogates people to complete this puzzle. Little by little, the tragic figure of the Beatle appears, as if it were about to take shape in the developer's basin. Obviously, the image was frozen forever in the public eye, truly a synthesis of what would happen: be it the name of the city where he would be assassinated, written on his T-shirt, his arms crossed as if awaiting his executioner, and his star-shaped sunglasses. He sketches the sphinx-like face of the rock band's most articulate member and, finally, the fence behind him. However, the drawing is not Vik's final product. The drawing preserves the traces of his mortal struggle against oblivion. He then photographs the drawing and develops it on paper that can give it the same grain as a radio photograph. He proceeds in the same way with the memory of the first man to set foot on the moon, the execution of a Viet Cong suspect, the girl running naked down the road after the napalm fell. All these clichés come from a selection of the best photos produced by Life magazine, the first book Vik bought in the United States upon his arrival there in 1983, when he had a rudimentary knowledge of English. The series 'The Best of Life,' produced between 1988 and 1990, thus refers to the recapture of a moment when he felt exiled, lost, and isolated. To be As an artist, he failed to reproduce this state, as if the recovery of the time he had rediscovered provided him with the definitive key to his vocation.
Source: AGUILAR, Nelson. EXHIBITION of Rediscovery. Contemporary Art. General curator: Nelson Aguilar; presentation: Edemar Cid Ferreira. São Paulo, 255 p., 2000. p. 212.

Aracy Amaral
Technique, virtuosity, and recreation with unusual materials

"There are some traits in Vik Muniz (...) that we would like to address. First, his commitment to 'making,' and not just the conception of a work, which is the tone of his production. In this 'making,' his technical mastery to carry out an idea is implicit. Starting from a copy of a work of art or a photograph, he meticulously and competently selects certain artists from the history of art—Corot, Coubert, Monet, Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Rothko, Morris—out of challenge or admiration?—reproducing the work of 'another' in his own way. (...)

In the case of Vik Muniz, when he reproduces the work of 'another' in his own way, we refer to the materials he uses, different from those employed in the work he selected. Photographs reproduced with sugar or garbage, or a Last Supper recreated with liquid chocolate imply a highly creative poetic license. It is known that, in the history of art, this artist is not alone. in his procedures. Arcimboldo, in the sixteenth century, composed, with rare inventiveness, character profiles in artificial 'assemblages' of fruits, vegetables, and greens. (...)

In the series made with liquid chocolate, for example, we know that Vik reconstructed these images using a dropper, with almost oriental patience, and this process continued by quickly photographing the image fixed (...) in Cibachrome. The artist's process, decidedly Mannerist, is surprising both for the similarity of the original image to the one reproduced and for the freshness of the shimmering shine of the delicious chocolate color that emerges in these works. (...)

Could it be said that his procedure is inherited from the pop movement of the 1960s? Perhaps, since the artists of that decade (be it Jasper Johns, Oldenburg, Warhol, or Lichtenstein, just to name a few) copied ad infinitum newspaper pages, photographs of famous people, and repainted cans of beer or represented soup cans, they recreated advertisements and environments typical of North American visual culture of the time, with lightness and a sense of humor that also approaches that implicit in Vik Muniz's artistic work.

Copy and multiple, as we know, have existed since machines were invented. And Vik Muniz relies on them, making photography the final product of his work. It is for this reason that we always keep in mind this visual artist, draftsman, and painter who uses line or mixed media, but who opts for photography, with a limited print run for each work. He is, therefore, within his time and, simultaneously and contradictorily, outside of it, by making the strictly artisanal, manual, his work process. For this very reason, he surprises and intrigues us with the latent paradox between the process and the intriguing end result. (...)

But this is only one facet of Vik Muniz's work. As a draftsman, he emerges full of poetry when his line flows in pure linearity with a simple thread of wire, fixing, with maximum economy, everyday objects: a swing, a roll of toilet paper, a light summer dress drying on the clothesline. Images created for later photographic documentation, always the final product of his work. In this particular series, he demonstrates that poetics is alive when there is technical mastery, when an idea guides the work, when there is a concept to pursue, in short. (...)

Another impressive fact about this artist is that he does not cultivate copying as a mere reinterpretation or capture of a process solely to obtain the composition of an image (...). He is not interested only in perfect copies, pastiches of recognized works or famous photographs. What is evident, along with his virtuosity and erudition, is that, starting from an image—from a representation—in the solitude of the patient elaboration of his works, a positive diversity emerges in the choice of media for his 'matrices'—perforated paper, cotton, liquid chocolate, sugar, trash, wire, dust, sawdust, jam, dulce de leche, pins, Pantone. However, the success that has surrounded his presentations is also a challenge, due to the excessive pressure from the market and institutions. May it therefore endure, with the necessary quality control, so that we remain enchanted by the humorous, extraordinary, playful, 'funny,' and wonderful aspect of Vik Muniz's creative act."
Source: AMARAL, Aracy. Vik Muniz: Illusionism Beyond Specular Appearance. In: MUNIZ, Vik. Seeing is Believing. Text by Aracy Amaral, Beth Wilson. São Paulo: MAM, 2001. p. 20-24.

Solo Exhibitions

1988 - New York, USA - Solo, PS122
1988 - New York, USA - Solo, Stux Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - Solo, Stux Gallery
1990 - New York, USA - Solo, Stux Gallery
1990 - San Francisco, USA - Solo, Stephan Wirtz Gallery
1990 - Santa Monica, USA - Solo, Meyers/Bloom Gallery
1991 - Barcelona, Spain - Solo, Galeria Berini
1991 - Cologne, Germany - Solo, Kicken-Pausebach
1991 - New York, USA - The Best of LIFE, Stux Gallery
1991 - Paris, France - Solo, Galerie Claudine Papillon
1991 - São Paulo, Brazil - Solo, Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1992 - Luxembourg - Solo, Gallerie Beaumont
1992 - New York, USA - Solo, Stux Gallery
1992 - Turin, Italy - Solo, Claudio Botello Arte
1993 - New York, USA and Verona, Italy - Equivalents, Tricia Collins Contemporary Art and Ponte Pietra Gallery
1994 - New York, USA - Representations, Wooster Gardens
1994 - Turin, Italy - Solo, Claudio Botello Gallery
1995 - São Paulo, Brazil - The Wire Pictures, Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1996 - Curitiba, Brazil - Solo, Galeria Casa da Imagem
1996 - New York, USA - The Best of Life, Wooster Gardens
1996 - New York, USA - The Sugar Children, Tricia Collins Contemporary Art
1996 - San Francisco, USA - Pantomimes, Rena Bransten Gallery
1996 - São Paulo, Brazil - Solo, Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1997 - New York, USA - Pictures of Thread, Wooster Gardens
1997 - Santa Monica, USA - Solo, Dan Bernier Gallery
1997 - São Paulo, Brazil - Solo, Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1998 - Lisbon, Portugal - Solo, Galeria Módulo
1998 - New York, USA - Flora Industrialis, Brent Sikkema Gallery
1998 - New York, USA - Seeing is Believing, International Center of Photography
1998 - San Francisco, USA - Solo, Rena Bransten Gallery
1999 - Chicago, USA - Seeing is Believing, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College
1999 - Stockholm, Sweden - Solo, Galeri Lars Bohman
1999 - Honolulu, USA - Solo, The Contemporary Museum
1999 - Milan, Italy - Solo, Photo & Co
1999 - New York, USA - Beyond the Edges, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1999 - Paris, France - Flora Industrialis, Caisse des Dèpôts et Consignations
1999 - Paris, France - Fresh Paint, Galerie Renos Xippas
1999 - Paris, France - Solo, Centre National de la Photographie
1999 - Rome, Italy - Solo, Gian Enzo Sperone Gallery
1999 - Tucson, USA - Seeing is Believing, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
2000 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Solo, Foundation Huis Marseille
2000 - Honolulu, USA - Seeing is Believing, The Contemporary Museum
2000 - Lausanne, Switzerland - Images Pièges, Musée de l´Elysee
2000 - New York, USA - Photographs & Personal Articles, Ubu Gallery
2000 - New York, USA - Pictures of Ink, Brent Sikkema Gallery
2000 - Pittsburgh, USA - Clayton Days: picture stories, The Frick Art & Historical Center
2000 - San Francisco, USA - Earthworks, Rena Bransten Gallery
2000 - São Paulo, Brazil - O Objeto Invisível, Galeria Camargo Vilaça
2000 - Saratoga Springs, USA - Vik Muniz: a retrospective, The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College
2000 - Tokyo, Japan - Solo, Gallery Gan
2001 - Madrid, Spain - Solo, Galería Elba Benítez
2001 - New York, USA - The Things Themselves: pictures of dust, Whitney Museum of American Art
2001 - Recife, Brazil - Ver é crer, Mamam
2001 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Ver para Crer, MAM/RJ
2001 - São Paulo, Brazil - Clayton Days: picture stories, Instituto Cine Cultural
2001 - São Paulo, Brazil - Solo, Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2001 - São Paulo, Brazil - Ver para Crer, MAM/SP
2002 - Fortaleza, Brazil - Pictures of Earthworks: the Sarzedo drawings, Centro Dragão do Mar de Arte e Cultura
2003 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Retratos de Revista, Paço Imperial
2003 - São Paulo, Brazil - Vik Muniz: trabalhos monádicos e fotografias, Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2004 - São Paulo, Brazil - Retratos de Revista, Pinacoteca do Estado
2005 - São Paulo, Brazil - Divas e Monstros, CCBB

Group Exhibitions

1988 - New York, USA - Gravity and Blindness, PS 122
1988 - Santa Monica, USA - The New Poverty II, Meyers/Bloom Gallery
1989 - Cologne, West Germany (now Germany) - Wortlaut: Konzepte Zwischen Visueller Poesie & Fluxus, Galerie Schüppenhauer
1989 - Diepenheim, Netherlands - De Rozeboomkamer, Beeldenroute Foundation
1989 - New York, USA - Buena Vista, John Gibson Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - Group Exhibition, Craig Cornelius Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - Group Exhibition, Stux Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - Fluxus and Friend, Emily Harvey Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - Frames of Reference, The Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - Obscured, Josh Baer Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - The Contemporary Triptych, Jamison/Thomas Gallery
1989 - New York, USA - The Last Laugh; Humor, Irony, Self-Mockery & Derision, Massimo Audiello Gallery
1989 - Santa Monica, USA - Group Exhibition, Karl Bornstein Gallery
1990 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Non Sculpture, Galerie Barbara Farber
1990 - Baltimore, USA - Group Exhibition, Baltimore Sales and Rental Gallery, Baltimore Museum
1990 - Barcelona, Spain - Group Exhibition, Fernando Alcolea
1990 - Cleveland, USA - On the Edge Between Sculpture and Photography, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art
1990 - Dayton, USA - Assembled, Wright State University
1990 - Düren, Germany - 3rd International Biennale der Papierkunst 19, Leopold-Hoesch Museum
1990 - New York, USA - Constructed Illusion, Pace MacGill Gallery
1990 - New York, USA - Drawing, Althea Viafora
1990 - New York, USA - Frames of Reference, The Gallery
1990 - New York, USA - Framing Cartoons: In and Out of Context, Loughelton Gallery
1990 - New York, USA - Semi-Objects, John Good Gallery
1990 - New York, USA - Stuttering, Stux Gallery
1990 - New York, USA - Total Metal, Simon Watson Gallery
1990 - Paris, France - All's Quiet On The Western Front, Espace Dieu, Galerie Antoine Candau
1990 - Paris, France - U.S.A. Annees 90, Galerie Antoine Candau, l'Espace-dieu
1990 - San Francisco, USA - Functional Fantasy, TransAmerica Pyramid Lobby
1991 - Akron, USA - The Encompassing Eye, Photography as Drawing, University Art Galleries, University of Akron
1991 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - The Neighborhood, A.I.R.
1991 - Aosta, Italy - Theoretically Yours
1991 - Atlanta, USA - Outside America, Fay Gold Gallery
1991 - Bologna, Italy - Anni Novanta, Galleria d'Arte Moderna
1991 - Hartford, USA - Mike Kelley/Vik Muniz/Jim Shaw, Real Art Ways
1991 - Hartford, USA - The Fetish of Knowledge, Real Art Ways
1991 - New York, USA - Ornament, John Post Lee
1991 - New York, USA - SummerReview 91, Stux Gallery
1991 - New York, USA - Timely Objects with Ironic Tendencies, Rosa Esman Gallery
1991 - New York, USA & Brescia, Italy - Dissimilar Identity, Scott Alan Gallery & Museo Ken Damy di Fotografia Contemporanea
1991 - Paris, France - Gallery Artists, Galerie Claudine Papillon
1991 - Paris, France - Real Fake, Fondation Cartier, Jouy-en-Josas
1991 - Pittsburgh, USA - Emil Lucas/Vik Muniz/Jim Hyde, Steve Mendelson Gallery
1991 - San Francisco, USA - Framed, Stephen Wirtz Gallery
1991 - Santa Monica, USA - The-Art-Over-The-Sofa Exhibit, Boritzer/Gray Gallery
1991 - Turin, Italy - The New Low, Galleria Claudio Bottello
1992 - Aosta (Italy) - Theoretically Yours
1992 - Brescia (Italy) - Oltrefoto, at Museo Ken Damy di Fotografia Contemporanea
1992 - New York (United States) - Brent Sikkema Fine Arts
1992 - New York (United States) - Detour, at The International House
1992 - New York (United States) - International House
1992 - New York (United States) - Les Enfants Terribles, at Wooster Garden
1992 - New York (United States) - Multiple Orgasm, at Arena
1992 - New York (United States) - Re: Parceling Perception, at Four Walls
1992 - Paris (France) - Diversite Latino Americaine, at Gallery 1900/2000
1992 - Paris (France) - Gallery Artists, at Galerie Claudine Papillon
1992 - Paris (France) - Selective Passage, at Jusse Segan
1992 - Prato (Italy) - Life Size: Small, Medium, Large, at Museo D'Arte Contemporaneo Luigi Pecci
1992 - Prato (Italy) - The Collection, at Centro per l'arte Contemporaneo Luigi Pecci
1992 - Ridgefield (United States) - Multiples, at The Aldrich Museum of Art
1993 - Italy - Sound, at Museo D'Arte Moderna-Bolzano
1993 - Loreto (United States) - The Alternative Eye: Photography for the 90's, at Southern Alleghenies Museum
1993 - New York (United States) - Group Show, at Wooster Gardens
1993 - New York (United States) - Group Show, at Tom Cugliani Gallery
1993 - New York (United States) - Elvis Has Left the Building
1993 - New York (United States) - Hypercathexis: Layers of Experience, at Stux Gallery
1993 - New York (United States) - Jean-Francois Millet, A Dialogue, at Phillpe Briet Gallery
1993 - New York (United States) - Moving Shadows, at Tennisport Arts
1993 - New York (United States) - Wasteland, at Dooley Le Cappellaine Gallery
1993 - Paris (France) - Jours Tranquilles a Clichy
1993 - Post-Verbum, Pallazzo della Regione Bergamo
1993 - Turin (Italy) - Time to Time, at Castello di Rivara
1994 - Frankfurt (Germany) - Jetleg, at Galerie Martina Detterer
1994 - Hartford (United States) - Garbage, at Real Art Ways
1994 - New York (United States) - A Fistful of Flowers, at Grand Salon
1994 - New York (United States) - Across The River And Into The Woods, The Rushmore Festival at Woodbury, NY, curated by Collins and Milazzo
1994 - New York (United States) - Crash, The Thread Waxing Space, NYC, NY
1994 - New York (United States) - Possible Things, at Marcel Sitcoske
1994 - New York (United States) - Single Cell Creatures, at Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah
1994 - New York (United States) - Up the Stablishment: Reconstructing The Counterculture, at Sonnabend Gallery
1995 - Curitiba PR - Mostra America, at Fundação Cultural de Curitiba
1995 - Dallas (United States) - Blindspot, at The MAC, Dallas Artist Research and Exhibition
1995 - Houston (United States) - Changing Perspectives, at Contemporary Art Museum
1995 - Los Angeles (United States) - Recent Acquisitions, at Los Angeles County Museum
1995 - New York (United States) - A Drawing, at Bravin Post Lee Gallery
1995 - New York (United States) - Garbage, at Thread Waxing Space
1995 - New York (United States) - Group Show, at Margareth Murray Fine Arts
1995 - New York (United States) - The Cultured Tourist, at Center for Photography at Woodstock
1995 - New York (United States) - Wheel of Fortune, at Lombard/Fried Gallery
1995 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/RJ
1995 - San Francisco (United States) - Blue, at Steven Wirtz Gallery
1995 - San Francisco (United States) - Group Show, at Steven Wirtz Gallery
1995 - San Francisco (United States) - The Photographic Condition, at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
1995 - São Paulo SP - Panorama of Brazilian Contemporary Art, MAM/SP
1995 - São Paulo SP - 24th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
1995 - Verona (Italy) - Nonsolofotografia, at Galleria Ponte Pietra
1996 - Chicago (United States) - Some Assembly Required, at The Art Institute of Chicago
1996 - Graz (Austria) - Inclusion/Exclusion, at Steirischer Herbst
1996 - New York (United States) - Recent Acquisitions, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1996 - New York (United States) - The Subverted Object, at UBU Gallery
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - New Acquisitions, MAM/RJ
1996 - San Jose (United States) - Shadow Play, at Institute of Contemporary Art
1996 - Santa Fe (United States) - Material Matters, at A.O.I. Gallery
1996 - São Paulo SP - Bis, at Galeria Camargo Vilaça
1996 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Wesenchau: Disingenuous Images, at Galerie Renee Ziegler
1997 - Blérancourt (France) - Une Fleur des Photographes: L'Arum, at Musée National de la Coopération franco-américaine, Chateau de Blérancourt
1997 - Chicago (United States) - New Faces and Other Recent Acquisitions, at The Art Institute of Chicago
1997 - Mexico City (Mexico) - New Faces and Other Recent Acquisitions, at Centro Arte Contemporaneo
1997 - New York (United States) - 20 Years, Almost, at Robert Miller Gallery
1997 - New York (United States) - Hope, at The National Arts Club
1997 - New York (United States) - New Photography 13, at Museum of Modern Art
1997 - New York (United States) - Normotic, at One Great Jones
1997 - New York (United States) - One Line Drawing, at UBU Gallery
1997 - New York (United States) - Ut Scientia Pictura, at Paolo Baldacci Gallery
1997 - Paris (France) - Artistes Latino-Americains, at Daniel Templon
1997 - Paris - Photographie d'une Collection, at Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, 13 Quai Voltaire
1997 - San Francisco (United States) - Pool, at Rena Bransten Gallery
1997 - Valencia (Spain) - Colección Ordônez Falcón de Fotografia, at IVAM. Centre Julio Gonzalez
1998 - Berlin (Germany) - Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand, MAM/RJ, at Haus der Kulturen der Welt
1998 - Copenhagen (Denmark) - The Garden of the Forking Paths, at Kunstforeningen
1998 - London (England) - Group Exhibition, at The Cannon Gallery for Photography and The Victoria and Albert Museum
1998 - Memphis (United States) - The Cottingley Fairies and Other Apparitions, at The Brooks Museum of Art
1998 - New York (United States) - Internality/Externality, at Galerie Lelong
1998 - New York (United States) - The Cultured Tourist, at Leslie Tonkonow
1998 - Paris (France) - La Collection II, at Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
1998 - Paris (France) - Le Donné, le fictif, at Centre National de la Photographie
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazilian Art in the Collection of the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art: Recent Donations 1996–1998, at CCBB
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Horizonte Reflexivo, at Centro Cultural Light
1998 - Salzburg (Austria) - Das Maß der Dinge, at Ursula Blickle Stiftung
1998 - Kraichtal (Germany) - Das Maß der Dinge, at Galerie Im Traklhaus
1998 - San Diego (United States) - Double Trouble, The Patchett Collection, at Museum of Contemporary Art
1998 - San Francisco (United States) - Food, at Marcel Sitcoske Gallery
1998 - San Jose (United States) - In Over Our Heads: The Image of Water in Contemporary Art, at San Jose Museum of Art
1998 - São Paulo SP - 24th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
1998 - São Paulo SP - City Canibal, at Paço das Artes
1998 - São Paulo SP - The Modern and the Contemporary in Brazilian Art: Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand - MAM/RJ, at MASP
1998 - São Paulo SP - Urban Canibal, at Paço das Artes
1999 - Bogotá (Colombia) - De Brasil: Alquimias y Procesos, at Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango
1999 - Liverpool (England) - 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, at Tate Gallery
1999 - London (England) - Abracadabra, at The Tate Gallery
1999 - New York (United States) - Museum As Muse: Artist Reflect, at MoMA
1999 - San Francisco (United States) - Eye Candy, at Rena Bransten Gallery
1999 - São João da Boa Vista SP - 2nd Fernando Furlanetto Photography Week, at Teatro Municipal
1999 - Seattle (United States) - Cherry, at James Harris Gallery
2000 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Brasil: Plural y Singular, at Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires
2000 - Curitiba PR - New Trends, at Casa Vermelha
2000 - Guadalajara (Mexico) - America Foto Latina: Photography in Contemporary Art, at Museo de Las Artes de La Universidad de Guadalajara
2000 - Lausanne (Switzerland) - Vik Muniz/Geraldo de Barros, at Musée de l'Elysée
2000 - New York (United States) - 2000 Whitney Biennial, at Whitney Museum of American Art
2000 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Gilberto Gil: The Image of Sound, at Paço Imperial
2000 - Salvador BA - The Quietude of the Earth: Daily Life, Contemporary Art, and Projeto Axé, at MAM/BA
2000 - São Paulo SP - The Human Figure in the Itaú Collection, at Itaú Cultural
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazil + 500: Exhibition of Rediscovery, at Fundação Bienal
2000 - São Paulo SP - End of the Millennium: The 1990s at MAM, at MAM/SP
2001 - New York (United States) - Brazil: Body and Soul, at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
2001 - Recife PE - Palavraimagem, at Mamam
2001 - Recife PE - Políticas de la Diferencia: Late 20th Century Ibero-American Art, at Pernambuco Convention Center
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection, at Paço Imperial
2001 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Spirit of Our Time, at MAM/RJ
2001 - São Paulo SP - Blind Mirror: Selections from a Contemporary Collection, at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Photography/Non-Photography, at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Spirit of Our Time, at MAM/SP
2001 - São Paulo SP - Rotativa Phase 1, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2001 - São Paulo SP - The Trajectory of Light in Brazilian Art, at Itaú Cultural
2001 - Venice (Italy) - 49th Venice Biennale, at Palazzo Fortuny and Giardini
2002 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - The Thread Unraveled: Contemporary Brazilian Art, at Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires
2002 - New York (United States) - Tempo, at MoMA
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Artefoto, at CCBB
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Paths of the Contemporary 1952–2002, at Paço Imperial
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Between Word and Image: Module 1, at Sala MAM-Cittá América
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Identities: The Brazilian Portrait in the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
2002 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Parallels: Brazilian Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century in Context, Cisneros Collection, at MAM/RJ
2002 - São Paulo SP - Photographs in the Collection of the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Appropriated Images, at MAM/SP
2002 - São Paulo SP - Parallel, at Galpão, Avenida Matarazzo 530
2002 - São Paulo SP - Parallels: Brazilian Art of the Second Half of the 20th Century in Context, Cisneros Collection, at MAM/SP
2003 - Barcelona (Spain) - Mapas Abiertos: Latin American Photography 1991–2002, at Palau de la Virreina
2003 - Brasília DF - Artefoto, at CCBB
2003 - Madrid (Spain) - Mapas Abiertos: Latin American Photography 1991–2002, at Fundación Telefónica
2003 - São Paulo SP - Print Goes Well, Thank You: Historical and Contemporary Brazilian Printmaking, at Espaço Virgílio
2003 - São Paulo SP - The New Geometry, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2003 - São Paulo SP - The Subversion of the Means, at Itaú Cultural
2003 - São Paulo SP - MAM Print Collectors Club, at MAM/SP
2003 - São Paulo SP - 28th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at MAM/SP
2004 - Belo Horizonte MG - Pampulha, Collected Works: 1943–2003, at MAP
2004 - Madrid (Spain) - Arco/2004, at Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Contemporary Brazilian Art in Rio Collections, at MAM/RJ
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - New Acquisitions 2003: Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection, at MAM/RJ
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 28th Panorama of Brazilian Art, at Paço Imperial
2004 - São Paulo SP - Summer Bazaar, at Galeria Fortes Vilaça
2004 - São Paulo SP - Photography and Sculpture in the MAM Collection – 1995 to 2004, at MAM/SP