Minna Resnick By remixing cultural and historical narratives that focus on the ways we communicate both verbally and through our bodies, Resnick’s work invites the viewer to not only engage with the story within the image, but consider our own way of transmission.
Hi Minna. Thank you so much for talking to us. Your oeuvre is so impressive! Your website shows work going back to the 1970s and it doesn’t seem like you’ve taken a break. Can you remember the first exhibition you had of your own work? Where was it and what did you show? What do you remember about it?
12
Actually, I cheated and had to look it up in my resume. After all, it’s almost 50 years ago. But it’s a doozy. I thank you for unleashing some of the most memorable times in my early career. You might be sorry you asked, as this is a very long answer. My first solo show was in Canberra, Australia! We spent a semester there in late 1974/early 1975 – their terms are on a different calendar than ours. My husband was asked to be a scientific research fellow at Australian National University. Canberra is the capital of Australia and at that time was a backwater and a pretty bleak place to live; just civil servants and university personnel with barely a restaurant and one cinema. The National Gallery of Australia lived in a warehouse. However, it had a fabulous small art gallery owned by Ruth Prowse, who was in her 50s when she opened Gallery Huntly, shortly before I arrived. Every time my husband and I traveled abroad, the first thing I packed was a large pile of photos of my model, as I expected to
Did You Ever Ask Why Mixed Media Drawing (digital, solvent transfer, colored pencil, acrylic ink 16 1/8" x 24 1/16" 2021
continue working. I also packed a portfolio of my prints since my identity is my artwork. I immediately looked for places to see art and came up blank except for Gallery Huntly. I ended up going there 2-3 times a week to see Ruth’s immense European and contemporary inventory, with the other days drawing in our apartment. She offered me a show within a month, and it opened before I left. I actually sold work and she represented me for years. One magical moment I especially remember is that she took me, since she knew every art person in town, into the National Gallery (still unopen to the pubic) to peek at Jackson Pollack’s “Blue Poles” which they had just purchased and unpacked. It was leaning up against a wall. At the time, most of Australia was angry that the government spent so much money on this purchase. Today it is the diamond of their contemporary collection.
