Oscar Muñoz
b. 1951
Over the past three decades, Óscar Muñoz has developed a remarkable body of work that explores the relationship between image and memory. His work defies characterization by medium, blurring the boundaries between photography, printmaking, drawing, installation, video and sculpture. Although he has abandoned traditional formats, he cleverly utilizes specific technical and conceptual aspects of printmaking-occasionally incorporating self-destructive elements to purposely challenge the consistency of reproduction that is synonymous with printing. The expressive power of his work is as grounded in the intrinsic qualities of the materials he employs as in the poetic associations they embody. Through his innovative processes, such as printing charcoal pigment on water, or using human breath to reveal discretely printed portraits onto seemingly blank mirrors, Muñoz creates unstable images that oscillate between presence and absence. He uses images from newspaper obituaries that include victims of the drug trafficking and political conflicts in Colombia where he lives and works. He is fascinated by photographic images as the primary documentation of a person’s physical existence in a c…
Films