Christian Rex Van Minnen

1980, Providence, USA

 

Christian Rex Van Minnen's absurdist canvases revel in the grotesque, violent, and otherworldly and occasionally display a strange beauty. Many of his subjects, riddled with sores and pustules, call to mind horror movie monsters and toxic-waste grotesqueries, while his neon-hued floral arrangements are embedded with rotting skulls. Minnen juxtaposes his decrepit and decaying figures with a motif of cheery painted gummy candies that hang from dead flowers, adhere to humanoid heads, and otherwise operate as playful and wry counterpoints to his macabre tableaux. His paintings are informed by an artistic lineage that spans from Dutch vanitas to the work of magical realist painter Ivan Albright. 

 

Christian Rex van Minnen received his BA from Regis University, Denver in 2002. He has exhibited throughout the US and internationally and was recently awarded an Artist-in-Residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen. Recent exhibitions include con-figuration, a group exhibit at Postmasters, NY; Juxtapoz x Superflat, co-curated by Takashi Murakami and Evan Pricco at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada and Enantiodromia a solo show at Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen, Denmark. Public Collections include Denver Art Museum, Djurhuus Collection, The Christine & Andy Hall Collection, Colección Solo, and the Richard B. Sachs Collection.