Weird Bookshelf: Massa Confusa – The Art of Christian Rex van Minnen

A selection from our personal bookshelf: Massa Confusa – The Art of Christian Rex van Minnen | 2019
Published by Cernunnos

200 pages
22 x 28 cm
English

Christian Rex van Minnen’s art is challenging, intriguing, and disturbing. His provocative paintings depict the dynamic attraction and repulsion of mankind, often leaving the viewer deep in contemplative euphoria. Since his first solo exhibition in 2009, his work has been shown extensively around the world, garnering a cult following of admirers who are deeply moved by his honest paintings, often reflecting the artist’s own thoughts about the fragile male ego and what it means to identify as a white American man.

Van Minnen’s first foray into showcasing his delightfully complex work, Massa Confusa is a deluxe art book filled with beautiful paintings that raise questions around our identity while also bringing out the grotesque from within all of us.

Christian Rex van Minnen was born in Providence, RI, in 1980 and received his BA from Regis University, Denver, in 2002. He has exhibited throughout the US and internationally and in 2017 was awarded an Artist-in-Residence at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Aspen, CO. Van Minnen is represented by Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles and Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen.

Recent exhibitions include con-figuration, a group exhibit at Postmasters, NY; Juxtapoz x Superflat, co-curated by Takashi Murakami & Evan Pricco at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; and Enantiodromia, a solo show at Gallery Poulsen in Copenhagen. Public collections include: Denver Art Museum, Djurhuus Collection, The Christine & Andy Hall Collection, Colección Solo, and the Richard B. Sachs Collection. Van Minnen currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. (from editor)