Christian Rex Van Minnen: Born Free In The Golden Age

VETA by Fer Francés is pleased to present Born Free in the Golden Age, the second solo exhibition held in the gallery by American artist Christian Rex van Minnen. Van Minnen who is known for his unmistakable style and masterful technique, blends the grotesque, the sublime and the surreal in compositions that challenge the boundaries between the beautiful and the grotesque. 

 

With a style that can be placed at the intersection between classical tradition and contemporary provocation, this exhibition is a journey into the subconscious, as well as a visual experience that oscillates between beauty and abyss, and a unique opportunity to explore van Minnen's singular universe. 

 

The paintings on display, created especially for this exhibition, embrace a surrealistic freedom that creates a dialogue between past and present. The pieces allude to works from the Dutch Golden Age, especially the work of Ambrosius Bosschaert, one of the first painters to create floral still lifes as a genre on its own. Through a contemporary lens, van Minnen transforms these vanitas into meditations on universal consciousness, the anatomy of the psyche, and the spiritual alchemy of the 21st century. His paintings dazzle with a technical virtuosity that evokes the Flemish tradition while introducing the artist’s particular’s rich iconography: decaying flesh, decrepit figures, wilting flowers, brightly colored sweets, and motifs that fluctuate between the macabre and the ludic. For van Minnen, this juxtaposing of morbid and playful elements alike, reflects the tensions of the human experience and the contrasts of our own era. 

 

Christian Rex van Minnen (Rhode Island, 1980) lives and works in Santa Cruz, California. His work has been exhibited in prestigious venues in New York, Hong Kong, Berlin, Paris and Los Angeles and is part of important collections such as Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Hall Art Foundation, Denver Art Museum, Djurhuus Collection, Richard B. Sachs Collection, KAWS Private Collection, Long Museum Shanghai, He Art Museum Guangdong or X Museum Beijing, among others.