Christian Rex Van Minnen’s work reflects both his incredible talent and his biting critique of contemporary culture that pairs the playful with the perverse.
In his work, brightly colored jelly candies seemingly dance around mutant, monstrous often emblazoned with rugged inscriptions etched into their skin as he asks the viewer to contemplate that which is easy to consume visually and that which is much harder. Peeling back, as it were, the veil of naiveté that softens the challenges of our modern world, van Minnen exposes us to a hard, gruesome truth beneath. What makes these revelations particularly impactful is that van Minnen is clearly an expert painter on par with the great masters of the academic past. His rendering of texture and material recalls the greatness of some of the Old Masters, yet van Minnen’s message is undoubtedly a modern one.
Born in Rhode Island in 1980, van Minnen attended Regis University in Denver, Colorado, and graduated with a BA degree in 2002. He since has served as an Artist in Residence in Aspen, Colorado, at the Anderson Randon Arts Center, and he also enjoyed the solo exhibition of his work in various venues, such as Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen (2016) and the Richard Heller Gallery in Miami (2018). The Denver Art Museum currently holds examples of van Minnen’s art in their collection.
American, b. 1980
