West Cliff

In “West Cliff”, the artist presents images of figures that appear to be travelers, figures in ecstatic dances or postures on the edge of a cliff. The show takes its name from the famous West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California, where the artist has recently relocated from NYC. On any given day on West Cliff Drive, one can find surfers, homeless, and tech billionaires co-mingling on the geological and figurative crumbling edge of the western United States of America. The works shown consist of monotypes and etchings, some of which were created during the artist’s stay at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, where he worked with master printmaker Brian Shure of Anderson Ranch Editions to create super-sized 66 x 30 inch monotypes. Among the works are figures inspired by the 2018 Frick Museum exhibition of Spanish Baroque painter Francisco de Zurbarán’s epic series Jacob and His Twelve Sons. Like Zurbarán’s life-sized Old Testament characters, van Minnen’s figures are depicted cliffside, posed on the western-most edge where land meets water.