CHRISTIAN REX VAN MINNEN: METANOIA

NANZUKA is pleased to present “Metanoia,” a solo exhibition of new works by Christian Rex van Minnen.

January 17 - February 21, 2026

Van Minnen is widely known for his distinctive style, which fuses the classical oil painting techniques of 17th-century Baroque masters such as Rembrandt with 20th-century Surrealism and contemporary American underground culture, often infused with a sharp sense of black humor. In Metanoia, the artist presents a total of 15 new paintings, including works that further develop his signature grotesque yet seductive visual language, alongside a new body of paintings the artist describes as “Straightforward,” in which he explores a more classical still-life approach.

“Metanoia means change of mind or heart, or repentance. I began my art career as a vandal, as a destroyer, making ugly the beautiful things of the past. I have been a vandal in the temple. Growing up in the 80s and 90s my culture was and is one of depravity, debasement and destruction and I have for many years seen myself in that same light. This is a cultural thing and true of many of my peers. Whether this is learned, or actual, this has been the defining quality of the culture I am in, and my work has reflected this attitude. I have recently had a change of heart and I am being regenerated. Where once I only saw the formal qualities of the pictures of the past, now I am beginning to see the subject, the content, the great mysterious ecstasy of these works. This has come with a call to metanoia, to repent, to rethink.

I have started to paint still life paintings in a straightforward and sincere way by collecting objects from my local market or environment, photographing them and painting them. I only seek to glorify nature and creation and not destroy the genre but to contribute to it, while simultaneously moving forward my surreal style works that emulate and vandalize this traditional style, and attempt to express the intense emotions I feel in this process of spiritual regeneration. I am allowing these two to coexist for now.

Together, these works constitute an artistic inquiry that seeks to illuminate an aesthetic that Christian Rex van Minnen has developed over many years through persistent experimentation—one that transcends the boundaries between grotesqueness and beauty, and between corporeality and the sublime.