Gina Minichino started her journey in visual arts because of Charles Schulz. “He was my earliest influence for drawing and the reason I wanted to be a cartoonist,” she says. After spending her early career doing caricatures at parties, she eventually went back to school to study painting.
Ketchup with a Smile, oil on panel, 12 x 16"
“Once I started, I wanted to see how realistic I could make stuff,” she says. At first, she was primarily painting human subjects, but after discovering the work of Wayne Thiebaud, she became fascinated with food.
In Minichino’s upcoming show at Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles, her subjects are all edible. “I think my cartooning can come into play in a subconscious way with my paintings,” she says. “All of the pieces in this show are food that has been dumped over or spilled in some way and in a way I think that has a cartoonish kind of narrative.”
With this series, she has become fixated with capturing the moment of the spill—one that’s difficult to appreciate in real life, because as soon as a spill happens, most people immediately start to clean it up.
Cracked Cone, oil on panel, 12 x 16"
In Ketchup with a Smile, a glass bottle of ketchup lays on its side with a smiley-faced potato. She was in a diner when she saw the retro-looking glass bottle and asked if she could buy it from them. “I was really drawn to the old-fashioned sort of packaging and I loved the smiley faced potato because it looks like he was really enjoying the ketchup,” she says.
Instant Mess, oil on panel, 12 x 16"
Minichino often paints fast food, and when she does, she brings her camera setup with her to the restaurant to take reference photos. For Cracked Cone, which features a Dairy Queen dipped cone, she bought the ice cream and dropped it in the parking lot to capture her reference.
Instant Messcombines her food theme with her love of horror. Ramen noodles emerge from the ubiquitous Maruchan Instant Lunch Styrofoam cup like a creature from a B-movie. “I found the package design really nostalgic and then I dumped it out, and thought the noodles looked like they were alive and crawling out of the cup,” she says.
Spilled Spaghetti O’s, oil on panel, 12 x 16"
Tressa Williams, principal at Billis Williams Gallery, says, “Beautifully rendered on a neutral ground, Minichino’s very formal compositions are whimsical, playful and a technical tour de force capturing a moment that will not last…We adore Minichino’s work for her skill and her brilliant take on contemporary culture—these sweet treats and iconic foods exist in our memories of childhood and of special moments.”
Minichino’s solo show opens at Billis Williams on Saturday, September 9, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. and remains on view through October 7. —
Billis Williams Gallery 2716 S. La Cienega Boulevard • Los Angeles, CA 90034 • (310) 838-3685 www.billiswilliams.com
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