Christian Rex Van Minnen’s absurdist canvases revel in the grotesque, violent, and otherworldly and occasionally display a strange beauty. Many of his subjects, riddled with sores and pustules, call to mind horror movie monsters and toxic-waste grotesqueries, while his neon-hued floral arrangements are embedded with rotting skulls. Minnen juxtaposes his decrepit and decaying figures with a motif of cheery painted gummy candies that hang from dead flowers, adhere to humanoid heads, and otherwise operate as playful and wry counterpoints to his macabre tableaux. His paintings are informed by an artistic lineage that spans from Dutch vanitas to the work of magical realist painter Ivan Albright. Minnen has exhibited in New York, Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, Madrid, and Miami. His works are in the collections of Beth Rudin DeWoody, the Hall Art Foundation, the Denver Art Museum, and the Colección SOLO, among others.