Lips, labia, ass crack, eye lids, foreskin. Folds of flesh surround our most vulnerable areas and when they are gently parted, possibilities between our bodies emerge. Life is a parade of soft bodies trying to control what passes through. Rather than fret, Anne Minich revels in meekness. In her solo exhibition, Tender, on view at Commonweal Gallery, portraits, landscapes, sculpture, and abstract works explore the non-duality of pleasure and uncertainty.
Tender begins with a dare. A sculpture, “The Hanging Maria”, dangles gingerly in the doorway of the gallery. The piece consists of a torso-like wooden branch that reaches almost five feet in length. To enter, visitors must decide how to navigate this benign obstacle. The habitual avoidance of touching artwork is compounded by the sculpture’s corporeality. It’s Marina Abromović and Ulay’s Imponderablia for the new materialist. Even in the gallery guide, Minich transitions from using “it” pronouns to describe the piece to using “she/her” pronouns. “She greets you as you enter the exhibition,” Minich writes, “inviting physical contact and requiring visitors to interact with her as they move past.”
Within this gallery guide, Minich thoroughly discusses the personal and conceptual contexts for the twelve pieces in Tender. The didactics provide supplementary information to themes that are readily apparent in Minich’s diagrammatic work. The piece “1/8/11” depicts a hand gun debossed into a wood panel, with the words “I’LL SHOW YOU MINE IF YOU SHOW ME YOURS” blazoned across the surface in red text. The message is clear. Additional language about the painting’s catalyst, the murder of 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, is less about understanding the artwork and more about contextualizing Minich herself. Biographical information becomes even more precious when the artist has a career that spans over 70 years.
Even without context or text, pieces like “Little Pinky and the Cradle Boat” and “Danny Boy” resonate with curious gloom. Both works contrast the silhouette of small boat with stark backgrounds, which render the vehicle immobile. In “Little Pinky and the Cradle Boat”, the pink boat is nestled within a flattened piece of metal, which has been embedded into the surface of the dark painting. Above the boat is a thin horizon line, bright blue. Submerged and overpowered, the boat is still luminous. In “Danny Boy”, the little boat is frozen within the white void that surrounds it. The bright background is contrasted by a thick black border. “Danny Boy” is a snapshot of a non-place—hopeless and overwhelmed with possibilities.
Another recurring image in the gallery is from Minich’s “Span (Spread Leg)” series. Both of the works from this series, “Rain for Susan” and “AEGM”, are small drawings on paper. They contain the same biform composition; a mountainous shape that slopes to the right and above it, a shape that is both the sky and, well, a pair of spread legs. The gentle ambiguity of the mass is achieved, remarkably, by just a tiny curved line and a smidge of shading in the middle of the concave shape. This small mark adds dimension to the hovering form and flattens the mound below it. However Minich plays with light and shading to give each shape equal value, leaving an optical ambiguity.
When viewing art, the time between impression and recognition is precious. Detail is the key to extending it. As a classically trained draftsperson, Minich understands the efficacy of a subtle hand. In the gallery, there is a single free-standing wall and it only holds two drawings—one per side. First there is “Turkey Two”, which depicts a truncated nude figure that is bending over to escape most of the picture plane. The background is darkened with graphite marks and the body is shaded with a red colored pencil. The red marks concentrate on the figure’s phallus, creating a focal point at he drawing’s right edge. The vibrancy of the red penis is increased due to the fact that the drawing is actually a large cut out, which has been layered on top of a cool toned paper.
The other side of the wall holds the oldest piece in the exhibition, “Kathy 3 (leg up)”. Created in 1989, the life drawing consists of swift lines of sanguine conte crayon. The figure relaxes against a cushion with a piece of fabric across her lap. A raised knee reveals her genitalia, which Minich emphasizes with detailed marks. Only perspective and line weight is needed to depict a historically unusual portrait of a nude, older woman.
In the early days of 2025, it is a timely moment to compare Minich’s works to that of fellow PaFA alum, David Lynch. Both artists have a spiritualist streak that helped them usurp hegemonic culture. They aesthetically overlapped as well. In Minich’s painting “Fairy Tale House”, a stark, red house sits alone in the dark woods. Actual pieces of wood are embedded into the surface and give a shrine-like quality to the painting. Mundanity and mythology are brought together under the pretense of a looming darkness. It is Lynchian, some might say.
It would be worthwhile to compare the signifiers of both artists. Minich possesses a progressiveness that isn’t found in Lynch’s nostalgia-laden oeuvre. Minich’s work prevails because she embodied, rather than caricatured, the answer to the question, “What else is out there?” Tender is merely a glimpse into her world, but it is a transcendental one.
Anne Minich – Tender, through Feb. 1, 2025, at Commonweal Gallery
