Tupac Discovers America, 2014, Oil on Linen, 117 x 81 cm
In GLAZED AND CONFUSED Brooklyn based artist Christian Rex van Minnen explores the techniques and styles of Old Masters’ oil painting while seeking out opportunities within the traditional layers and glazes of paint to create a confused stratum of form, content and meaning. The end result are paintings that marry opposing forces of harmony and dissonance, beauty and horror, meaning and absurdity.
Still-Life with Dreams of Commercial Flight, 2014, Oil on Panel, 61 x 46 cm
The works in this exhibit depict grotesque portraits tattooed with a matrix of old and new tattoos, psychedelic patterns draped over mutated and chimeric forms, and hidden drawings embedded within the flowers of a still-life: images that present confusions of truth within the layers of paint; the mask and the face; psychedelia and psychosis; the cancer and the body; cultural inclusivity and assimilation; profundity and the absurd.
“Self-Portrait with Metallica” 2014, Oil on Panel, 61 x 46 cm
“In my work, whether stone and oil, metal and wood, or cardboard and papier-mâché alchemy and automatism are linked together in the cognitive creative process. Intention becomes line, line becomes shape, shape becomes form, and form becomes content. In my work I find myself either suppressing or indulging of my own desire to associate personal narrative to the raw visual information inherent in the material and process. Construction, destruction and reconstruction are symbiotic elements in the creative process allowing the image to fluctuate between abstraction and representation, truth and illusion, personal and archetypal.”
– Christian Rex van Minnen
To see installation shots of this kick a$$ show, visit: www.gallerypoulsen.com
To see more of the artists work visit: www.christianvanminnen.com
