This weekend I visited the Marilyn Minter retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA). All the work was captivating in beautiful and disgusting way. Her juxtaposition of glamor and grit, of the revealing and the disturbing, and of the intimate and the amplified shown throughout the entire show. The title Pretty/Dirty couldn’t have been more apt. A great review of the exhibit can be found at Hyperallergic.
“Pop Rocks” by Marilyn Minter
I was more impressed with her paintings than her photographs or videos. Above is a full-sized photo of Minter’s painting “Pop Rocks”. It’s a gigantic 9 feet by 15 feet. Outside of their sheer size and incredible detail, I’m fascinated by the process used to create them. The paintings start as heavily mixed and manipulated Photoshop negatives taken from earlier photo shoots. This new image is then turned into paintings created through multiple layers of translucent enamel paint on aluminum giving a rich hallucinatory look.
The final layer is applied with fingertips to create a softening of the paintbrush lines. And when you look closely you can see evidence of fingerprints and smudges all over her works. Below is a detail of the condensation from “Pop Rocks”
Detail of “Pop Rocks” by Marilyn Minter
The Marilyn Minter retrospective will be showing at MCA through the month so hurry up and go see it while you can. You can find a few more of my photos from the exhibit below.
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