Artist Statement
My work, whether painting, collage or sculpture, is a changing narrative about what I am feeling and what is influencing me at the time. I started out as a Photorealist, working on large cityscapes of New York City and Philadelphia. My work documented time and place like a visual diary. However, over the years I have moved away from being an observer to a more personal, internal journey.
My acrylic paintings explore the world of predator and victim, representing male dominance and fierceness. The animals and humans depict emotional real-world concerns, like the environment and our impact on it. It’s through collage that I am able to tap into the surrealistic world I now explore. For me, collaging is a subconscious free flow.
Nothing motivates me more than a new way of looking at the world. My sculptures, which derive from the collages, depict a more feminine fantasy world. These life-sized works are “Warrior Women” with wide-eyed hope and an eerily real presence. They are made with my own recipe for paper clay and then collaged. I usually have more than one project working at a time, since one idea feeds off another.
About Me
Barbara Minch has exhibited her art at the Newark Museum, NJ State Museum, Midland Center for the Arts, Ella Sharp Museum, Flint Institute of Art, Saginaw Art Museum, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia Art Alliance and New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts. She has been in group and solo exhibitions at Gallery Henoch, New York City, Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, and Suzanne Gross Gallery, Philadelphia.
Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Johnson and Johnson World Headquarters, Pfizer Headquarters in New York, City Without Walls, Nabisco, ADP, Merrill Lynch Headquarters in Princeton. She is in the collections of Philadelphia Airport Marriot Hotel, Amoco, CIGNA Corporation, Bell Atlantic, Fidelity National Bank, Philadelphia National Bank, Beaver College, Simon & Shuster, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, First US Bank and Somerset County College.
Minch teaches collage at the Montclair Art Museum and is an art instructor at the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School. She is the director of the Exhibitors’ Co-op and has been affiliated with Gallery Henoch, Chelsea, NY, as well as Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia.