Our long-time friend and one of the favorite people and painters out there, Christian Rex van Minnen, has been recently successfully expanding his practice outside of his Santa Cruz studio. Pursuing his continuous interest to explore and develop new approaches to his concepts, ideas, and visuals, he is about to release his first limited edition print after 10 years.
There are two facts important to this story - one, Van Minnen is a painter and paintings are his main thing, and two, he has always been curious about trying new and different ways to produce work. On top of that, he is on a constant lookout for ways to make some form of his practice become more accessible while not losing its quality or integrity. And while he did release a series of lithographs back in 2019, those were all new images created especially for the occasion. He also recently released a series of monotypes with Avant Arte, but despite the popular belief, those are all unique, original works created using an indirect paint application technique. He even dipped into the potent and hyperactive NFT universe with the launch of VanMinions.fun, and we're yet to see the full power of this elaborate and pretty damn unique concept. But the cold fact is, it's been 10 years since he's released a reproduction print of his painting, and this is why his upcoming timed-release dropping on Feb 22nd with Avant Arte is so important.
So, we used this opportunity to reconnect with our friend and talk about what tipped the glass for this release, and how did one of the most admired oil painters out there got involved with all these non-studio shenanigans. Turns out the story is pretty great and fits everything we already knew about CRVM.
Sasha Bogojev: The NFT release, the monotype collaboration with Avant Arte, and now the first print release after 10 years, how did it all happen, and how come it took you so long to do one?
Christian Rex Van Minnen: I think it is very much about accessibility and just really finding the right partners. I mean, I've been thinking about doing prints pretty much constantly. It's just, I wasn't able to find the right kind of relationship where it would be people who could do it right and actually build on each release.
So what do you think made them so different from anyone else you've considered?
I feel super confident about them. They're just adapting at the right pace of things. And they have a really great balance between being very product-oriented, but also very informed and really digging into the historical context of work. The way that they roll out those stories, I'm just really impressed by that. It's building a very informed collector base. That was one of the really major hurdles with the monotypes because I've been dying on that hill of educating people what a monotype is.
Yeah, I remember you constantly having to explain how they are basically an original work just the brush isn't touching the final surface but there is an in-between medium...
Yeah, it's a struggle because it's associated with the word print. And a lot of the time people don't get that it's just really one of one. It's its own weird thing in between painting and printmaking. And so it seemed like the perfect match, because part of their brand is education, creating a very informed group of collectors. So that just seemed like a perfect fit.
And is there any particular reason why you picked this image?
Yeah. I think it's definitely one of the more popular images I've done. It's very cleanly situated in the vanitas tradition, and it's pretty universal. But I'm excited to try some works that are much more challenging too. I think those elements are there in Parallax, but it's also, I think, something that people would really want to have on their wall. Some of the work I do, I'm not sure I would want to have on my wall. I don't know. I don't want to say things that are going to self-sabotage...
Yeah, I know you have other work that not many people have the stomach to deal with...are going to self-sabotage..
I've done some work where it's pretty heavy. But Parallax, I don't want to keep using the word accessible, like it's dumbed down or something, but it's just a beautiful image. That's kind of what I want to put forward. And also, the print quality from 10 years ago, it's unbelievable! The proofs of this print are just beautiful. It's got this really beautiful matte quality, but all the blacks are really rich and satiny.
And how did it go with the monotype release? How was that?
It went great and sold out immediately but I also want stuff to be available more democratically. And open editions are just available on that day. So, come and get it.
But you really put a lot of work into developing those monotypes and making them...
They're just paintings, man. I mean, they're all made here. And we had a film crew here shooting that. It was a kind of a risky move because it's a brand new technique that I developed. I had this prototype rig built specifically, and so what they filmed were the first ones ever produced. So it was basically indirect painting in monotype. So, printing separate layers on the same piece of paper. I'm going to actually do those bigger in the coming months. I think for this upcoming show, I'll make some of those bigger in the coming months. I think for this upcoming show, I'll make some of those.
And since we're walking backward, how did you end up in the NFT field and how did it feel, for someone working in such a traditional manner to go into such a newly developed, completely undiscovered, and hyper speculative sphere?
I think it really came out of, I guess, starting to see that NFT is more of a community-building medium than an art-making medium. That was really interesting because it was clear to me that it was the next layer on top of this integration between the art studio and social media, something that I've been playing with for years. The Instagram live video tattoo paintings were all pointing in this direction, and it was only in early 2021 that I started to see the connection there. It created this potential for real permeability, but also really upended the role of artists and collectors. Those roles get really blurry, and that's really fascinating to me. 
Was it also a bit of a need to try something more risky, unknown? Something you're not that comfortable with?
Well, I think it's in line with some personal development stuff, which is really examining some old myths around autonomy and the sort of hermetic quality of an artist. So, I think that that line of questioning really led me to embrace collaboration in a way that I hadn't before, embrace collaboration and openness.So it's beyond the work and more of a personal thing for you?
It's a real challenge to some core beliefs that I've held for a long time. That's exciting and also kind of unnerving. I'm kind of moving towards that because as uncomfortable as it is, it feels right, and that really at the root of it is collaboration. So, being much more open to collaboration is the consequence of really checking my own pride.
What would you say then is the end reward for something like that for you personally?
I think it's the unknown. I mean, the satisfaction is that it's entertaining this notion that through collaboration, I'll be able to arrive at something new that I couldn't think of myself. But still, keep that process of making paintings sacred. No one's making my paintings, it's still just me. I think that that will always be a really rewarding and kind of sacred process, but I also want to entertain this concept of being a part of a team. I've never been a team player. And so I'm just like, how rigid is my identity in that way? Can I be somebody who can collaborate, who can be part of a team? Because I think really unique things can come of that. So it's experimental. I don't know if that'll actually work out, but I'm kind of willing to try.
I never actually thought of it in that way. I always thought of releasing editions and collaborating more as a career or business move, like maybe broadening the network, trying out new things. But in this sense, the way you are describing it actually really is more like a personal thing about putting yourself out of your comfort zone to have someone else touch your work to adjust things about your work, add something to it, take off something...
Yeah, that's really at the root, at the core of the NFT project, is relinquishing some control. Again, I think just personally at this phase of my life, I'm really questioning whether or not my identity is static. Am I an introvert? I tell myself that, but what if I entertain some opposite action? I mean, that's really at the core of my painting process, is this examination of intuition and counterintuition.
Where did these realizations come from and how long have you been feeling this way?
A lot of that has to do with the stories I tell myself, and we tell ourselves, about what an artist should be. I admire a lot of these artists who are much more open and have big, collaborative, experimental studios. For a long time, I've been like, "Well, I'm different. That's not something I'm interested in. I like this sort of hermetic quality." But more recently, I'm really questioning all that with action. With, "Let's try. Let's see if that's true." In the end, it may turn out to be a failure, but I have to give myself permission to fail, you know? As an artist, I've been so committed to not failing, just making things perfect. And being a perfectionist, it's an illusion.
https://avantarte.com/products/parallax
