Christian rex Van Minnen’s Fungal Portraits

With an Old-World, malady painterly flourish Christian rex Van Minnen creates creepy, surreal portraits using vegetables, fungi, and animal carcasses. The similarities to the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo is immediately apparent; unlike Arcimboldo, however, Van Minnen shows no desire to render realistic visages. Using only the barest of draped cloth, and sometimes a hat, he lends his piles of detritus just enough shape to appear human, thereby making them appear that much more alien; their eyeless faces sprouting tendrils and clumps of tumor-like, vegetative growths. In that regard they are more still-life than they seem at first glance; more a window into a separate dimension than an optical illusion.

[via Cool Hunting]

5 Responses to “Christian rex Van Minnen’s Fungal Portraits”

  1. Mer Says:

    These are so badass. Thanks for posting, Ross. (I’m a hopeless nerd for fungi.)

  2. wchambliss Says:

    Oddly, I was just reading Stephen J. Gould’s essay “A Humongous Fungus Among Us” this evening. For fungi nerds and adventure tourists to Yuggoth:

    http://jimmyluxury.com/HumongousFungus.htm

  3. Zoetica Says:

    Van Minnen just got himself a new devotee. Excellent stuff!

  4. Jaye Says:

    Those look like denizens of Wayne Barlowe’s version of Hell.

  5. Binnorie Says:

    Definitely one of my favorite artists!