“The Birth of Venus, after Botticelli (Pictures of Junk)” by Vik Muniz.

“The beautiful thing about garbage is that it’s negative; it’s something that you don’t use anymore; it’s what you don’t want to see. So if you are a visual artist, it becomes a very interesting material to work with because it’s the most nonvisual of materials. You are working with something that you usually try to hide.” -Vik Muniz

The work of Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz, is complex and in many ways baffling. He takes unconventional materials like dirt, sugar, chocolate, wire and garbage to create images that reference historical and iconic works of art. On one level his photographs are pictures of junk, and yet the viewer’s perception changes as they draw away from the picture to see the transformation of materials into this iconic image.

The Mint Museum Uptown (a Knight Arts grantee) is showing an exhibition of Muniz’s work: “Vantagepoint X/Vik Muniz: Garbage Matters” through April 28. The exhibition features seven of his large-scale photographs accompanied by pictures of the images they reference. One of the most arresting works is “The Birth of Venus, after Botticelli (Pictures of Junk).” Created in 2008, this conceptual photograph mimics Botticelli’s famous painting of Venus rising from the sea. The Mint recently acquired this work in its Vote for Art campaign, which allowed visitors to the Museum to choose three new acquisitions for the Museum’s permanent collection.

Those of you as intrigued by Muniz’s work as I am can visit the Mint Tuesday January 8th to meet the artist. Muniz will discuss his work from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Mint’s Uptown location. The event is free to the public; however, it is strongly recommended that you register for the event. The Mint will host another opportunity to learn more about the artist on January 29 at 7 p.m. showing the film, “Wasteland,” a documentary about Muniz’s labor intensive process to create the “Pictures of Junk” series.

Mint Museum Uptown: 500 South Tryon St., Charlotte; 704-337-2000; www.mintmuseum.org. Open Tues., 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; Wed.–Sat., 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; and Sun., 1–5 p.m. Admission: adults, $10; students/seniors, $8;  children 5-17, $5.