Christian Rex van Minnen (b. 1980, Providence, Rhode Island) grew up in Colorado and took a BA at Regis University, Denver, in 2002. Largely self taught as a painter, he works in oil with the layered, glazed technique of the Dutch and Flemish masters, and turns it on subject matter that technique was never meant for: swollen and sored flesh, decrepit figures, rotting flowers with skulls inside them, and brightly coloured gummy sweets stuck to the surface like a joke that will not leave. The paintings pull towards attraction and repulsion at once, with the vanitas tradition and Ivan Albright somewhere behind them.
Solo exhibitions include Born Free in the Golden Age at VETA by Fer Francés, Madrid (2024), Enantiodromia at Gallery Poulsen, Copenhagen, and solo shows at AishoNanzuka in Hong Kong and Ross+Kramer in New York. His work was included in Juxtapoz x Superflat, co curated by Takashi Murakami, at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2017 he was artist in residence at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen. His paintings are held in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, the Hall Art Foundation, Colección SOLO and the Djurhuus Collection.
Van Minnen took part in the group exhibition Tutti Frutti 2 at Plan X Capri in 2023.
