Exhibition Review: Marilyn Minter at LGDR

Marilyn Minter, Snow White, 2022, Dye sublimation print, 60 x 45 inches (152.4 x 114.3 cm), Edition of 5, with 2 AP

© LGDR

Written by Wenjie (Demi) Zhao

Photo Edited by Billy Chen

Copy Edited by Kee’nan Haggen

Glimmers of makeup, beads of sweat, iridescent light. Marilyn Minter’s works across many media, paintings, photography, and sculptures alike unfold the unconventional beauty before one’s eyes. The vigorous life force concealed beneath threatens to break constraints and explode at any moment. Her works are difficult to describe in a single language, yet they share a cosmic, common identity — the intimacy of the female gaze.

On view from April 12 to June 3, LGDR presents Marilyn Minter’s kaleidoscopic body of works, spanning across Portraits, Odalisques, Bathers, Mouths, Photography, delving into the themes of sexuality, desire, and the female gaze. She challenges traditional gender role ideals through her lush colors, meticulous details, intimate and often provocative images.

Installation Photo Credit: Elisabeth Bernstein

In her works, Minter captures moments of unique beauty, focusing on the imperfect aspects often overlooked or erased from contemporary beauty and glamour imagery. Every brushstroke enlivens the characters within the painting, particularly the captivating eyes. Built up through thin layers of enamel applied over months or even years, the portraits feature people Minter admires, including artists, activists, and performers, such as Lady Gaga, Gloria Steinem, Roxane Gay, and Lizzo, among others, who contribute to cultural conversations around feminism, race, and gender politics. Each subject embodies a powerful statement about our times, and Minter's enamel paintings bring their stories to life.

Her works also reimagine historical artistic tropes, such as the Odalisques and the Bathers, through a contemporary lens that challenges the traditional depiction of women in art. Minter offers a contemporary vision of the reclining nude, reorienting the tradition and challenging the viewer to reconsider the implications of female sexuality in art. In her Bathers series, Minter draws inspiration from artists like Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso. In a hazy atmosphere, with subtle and barely visible tattoos, the women under her lens and brushstrokes are beautiful and unafraid of being gazed upon. It is a celebration of unconventional beauty, featuring subjects with tattoos and confident attitudes who are unapologetically real. She deftly balances abstraction with realism, and encapsulates her fascination with the female gaze.

Marilyn Minter, Washout, 2019–21, Enamel on metal, 72 x 60 inches (182.9 x 152.4 cm)

© LGDR

Marilyn Minter, Red Hots, 2020, Enamel on metal, 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)

© LGDR

The Mouths series takes the viewer on a sensual journey into the intimate space of the mouth.

“It’s an erotic space, a necessity, a hole, a whole, a cavity.” — Jennifer Higgie

Minter’s “Thirsty (Drinking Fountain)” is a standout piece, an ingenious, interactive, and functional multimedia sculpture that fuses immersive experience with utility, transcending traditional artistic boundaries. The ethereal, cloud-like resin basins present a mesmerizing spectacle of lips, tongues, and pearls in a motion dance, enrapturing the audience with their hypnotic allure. This extraordinary creation embodies Minter’s prowess in harmoniously merging various artistic mediums, pushing the limits of conventional art forms, and prompting viewers to explore fresh perspectives on sensuality.

Marilyn Minter, Hush, 2023, Silkscreen on paper, 60 ½ x 45 ¼ inches (153.7 x 114.9 cm), Edition of 40, with 10 AP

© LGDR

“Shiny lips saturated with color. A pair of eyes, painted with garish eyeshadow. A gold-tipped tongue. A mouth yawned open, overflowing with costume jewelry.” — Roxanne Gay

Throughout the exhibition, Minter masterfully combines modern technology with centuries-old painting techniques. Using Photoshop as a drawing tool, she manipulates and recombines original photographs, creating multilayered images and serve as the foundation for her paintings. A sense of depth and and complex surface effects further penetrate Minter’s works: high-contrast hues and metallic tones, layers of enamel color and texture laid over time upon metal surfaces. The glossy and translucent finish allow light to pass through and interact with various layers, endowing Minter’s works an intricate and visually striking effects, vibrant colors and a luminous quality.

Marilyn Minter, Dazed, 2022, Dye sublimation print, 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm), Edition of 5, with 2 AP

© LGDR

Marilyn Minter’s works are full of a breathing sensation, like the thin mist on a windowpane in the early morning, clear and vibrant with life. Like water and air, they flow to their eternal connection. It is a quiet thrill and a delicate interplay between physics and photography, painting and sculpture, perception and depiction.

For more information, visit LGDR’s website.