Upcoming Exhibitions April 2nd through July 10th, 2016 Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty (Gallery 1- 11) We Were Here: Absence of the Figure (Snyder Gallery) Pacific Project: Yuki Kihara (Project Video Room) Marilyn Minter : biographical info ~Minter was born in 1948 in Shreveport, Louisiana , and raised in Florida. ~In 1976, she moved to New York after receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree at Syracuse University. ~Throughout the 80’s and early 90’s Minter received some recognition and a lot of criticism for her work, but her career really took off in the late 90’s and 2000s and is now at the pinnacle of success in her career. ~Currently lives in New York City and teaches in the MFA department at the School of Visual Arts . ~ This is her first major museum retrospective exhibition and it spans over 3 decades of work. Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirtyis organized by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. The exhibition is supported by generous Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty grants from Gregory R. Miller & Co., Amy and John Phelan, Jeanne Greenburg/Salon 94, and Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch. The exhibition tour includes Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; MCA Denver; OCMA; and the Brooklyn Museum. Mirrors • This section highlights Minter’s early investigations of the world around her—the domestic environment, the artist’s studio, printed mass media. • This section includes her earliest photographic works made 1969 as well as her explorations of photorealism and pop art from the 1980s. • During this period Minter starts to use appropriated images and investigates themes of beauty and the female body that become the central topics of her work for years to come. Coral Ridge Towers (Mom Smoking Extra Long) 1969/1995 Black and white photograph 30 x 40 inches Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Big Girls, 1986 Enamel on canvas 80 x 90 inches (two panels) Collection of Bill Contente, New York Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Appetites • Looks at the visual representation of food and sex sourced from both cooking and pornographic magazines in order to address our culture’s obsession with visual pleasure and desire • She uses paint to draw out similarities between raw food and bodily fluids. • While the food imagery was well received, her pornographic imagery was considered too risqué for a female painter and faced a firestorm of criticism. • The controversy centered on feminist debates surrounding the exploitation of the female body in pornography versus pleasure and physical arousal produced by sexually graphic imagery made by artists. • As a woman artist making this work, her work is made from a position of criticality, a move to take control of this kind of imagery and make a statement about power and equality. Appetites Series 100 Food Porn, 1989-90 Enamel on Metal 24 x 30 in each Courtesy of Artist , Salon 94, Steve Miller, Hort Family, Johanne C. Miller, Chapel Hill, Sally and John Bugg Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Rouge Baiser 1994 Enamel on metal 48 x 48 in Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Raw • Following her work with pornographic imagery Minter turned a critical eye towards blemishes, imperfection and grime through isolated body parts. • In this section Minter re-engages with photography as well as painting. This shift landed her several commissions from the fashion industry and gave her new material to further explore representations of beauty, glamour, wealth and the desire for perfection. • In fashion photography imperfection –dirt, stubble, pimples, freckles, sweat—are digitally corrected, however Minter takes them as her subject. Soiled, 2000 C-Print 60 x 40 inches Courtesy the artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Clip, 2005 Enamel on Metal 30 x 24 in Collection of Gregory R. Miller and Michael Weiner, New York Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Blue Poles, 2007 Enamel on Metal 60 x 72 in Private Collection, Switzerland Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Wet • This section of the exhibition includes video and photographs as well as paintings that all depict licking, dripping and devouring mouths. • Minter is drawing from artificial super sweet references to candy and soda--orange Crush and Pop Rocks– to draw out the grotesque side of decadence and indulgence. The images are mesmerizing and repulsive at the same time. • The focus on the mouth as site of consumption is Minter’s way of commenting on our seemingly insatiable desire for wealth and glamour. Orange Crush, 2009 Enamel on Metal, 108 x 180 in Private Collection Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Gasp, 2004 C-print 26 ¼ x 39 ¾ in Collection of Anita Sayed, Denver Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Black Orchid, 2012 C-print 86 x 57 in Courtesy of artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Pop Rocks, 2009 Enamel on Metal, 108 x 180 in Collection of Danielle and David Ganek Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Wangechi Gold 4, 2009 C-print 60 x 40 inches Courtesy the artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Glazed • This section of the show includes several larger works that appear as though seen through glass and layers of graffiti and steam. • To make these works Minter uses Photoshop to layer multiple images into a composition that she then translates to the two dimensional surface of the picture plane. She uses source images made of of many different photographic details compiled together as a guide for the paintings. • Minter’s paintings take a long time to make and they are made by her along with multiple assistants. • The final layer involves applying enamel paint with a single finger tip. Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Glazed, 2006 Enamel on metal 96 x 60 in Collection of Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Nicolas Rohatyn, New York Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Private Eye, 2013 Enamel on Metal 120 x 72 in Courtesy of artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Not in These Shoes, 2013 Enamel on Metal 108 x 162 in Courtesy of artist and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Still from Smash, 2014 HD digital video, 7:55 min, Courtesy of the artist, Salon 94, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty Key Points • This retrospective covers over three decades of her very productive career, demonstrating the range of work she has produced in different developmental stages. • Minter always had a keen ability to reproduce imagery, much of her work comes back to that skill. • Most importantly she is interested in metaphor and paradox. • Minter uses imagery from fashion and popular culture to address our culture’s relationship to media and celebrity culture as it is tied to obsessions with unrealistic ideals of beauty, wealth and power-- what she has called the “pathology of glamour.” • Marilyn Minter’s work often include sexuality and erotic imagery as a means of critiquing contemporary culture. She is particularly interested in critiquing the ways in which women’s sexuality is portrayed in the media and believes that women are entitled to sexual pleasure. We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Featured Artists Uta Barth Robert Olsen Stephen Brower Eric Orr Jedediah Caesar George Stoll Gianfranco Foschino Amir Zaki Anthony Hernandez Jeremy Kidd Tom LaDuke Robert Olsen Untitled (Gasoline Pump, #3), 2003 Oil on panel 11-1/2 x 8 inches Gift of Gary Mezzatesta We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Uta Barth Ground 30, 1994 Ektacolor print on panel 22 x 18 in Gift of Gary and Tracy Mezzatesta We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Jedediah Caesar Untitled (Helium Brick) 2009 Polystyrene, polyester, pigment, wood 96 x 48 x 48 inches Museum Purchase We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Gianfranco Foschino Fluxus, 2010 video installation 8 minutes; monitor: 42-1/2 x 25 x 3-1/2 inches Museum purchase We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Anthony Hernandez Everything #1 (Tunnel), 2003-2004 Chromogenic print edition 1 of 7 49x48.5 inches Museum purchase with funds provided through prior gift of Lois Outerbridge We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Jeremy Kidd Cibadome, 1998 Mounted photograph on topiary 40 x 55 in Gift of Patricia Correia Gallery We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Tom LaDuke Ice Age, 2002 Military Enamel, watercolor, aluminum, paint and Sculpey III on aluminum 48 1/8 x 60 1/8 in Gift of Curator’s Circle We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Eric Orr MU 5, 1982 Lead panel, gold leaf, bone ash, carbon, blood paint on wood panel 55 ¾ x 44 in Museum purchase with funds provided through prior gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Grant, and Mr. and Mrs. Ted P. Voss We Were Here: A Selection of Works from the Permanent Collection Amir Zaki Untitled (Up_UNIV 01), 1999 Laser direct type C print, artist’s proof 1 of 2 48 x 67 ¼ in Museum purchase with additional funds provided by Linda L. and Abbott L. Brown We Were Here: Absence of the Figure George Stoll Untitled, 1995 Beeswax, microstalline and pigment 15 x 6 x 10 in Gift of Peter Norton We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Matthew Booth Phil M. Leonard, Century City 1988, 2010 Archival pigment print 32x42 inches Anonymous gift We Were Here: Absence of the Figure Key Points • This exhibition is a poetic interpretation of the relationship between artworks in the permanent collection and how they can relate to one another visually under a thematic curation. • We Were Here explores the persistence of the human presence in place and time through contemporary interpretations of landscape, object and environment.