Marilyn Minter

Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, including market darlings George Condo, Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, this documentary examines the role of art and artistic passion in today’s money-driven, consumer-based society.

Visual artist Marilyn Minter has been a major creative voice since the 1970s. Despite her undeniable talent, her provocative style—often blurring the lines between pornographic and commercial—has kept her at arm’s length from the art world’s inner sanctum. Marilyn’s steadfast commitment to her own creative instincts has carried her through eras of success and rejection and into the present, where she has become known for capturing cultural icons like Lizzo, Jane Fonda, Pamela Anderson, Monica Lewinsky, and many others. As the public appetite catches up to Marilyn’s vision, will the establishment’s gatekeepers finally accept her?

Carlo McCormick was invited to curate an East Village Art show at a gallery in Richmond, Virginia. Filmmaker Tessa Hughes-Freeland took filmic evidence of the infamous exhibition that featured downtown artists such as David Wojnarowicz, Marilyn Minter, Luis Frangella and more painting naughty murals while on acid.

First commercial art ad that was played on a late night television.

A compilation of erotic films intended to illuminate the points where art meets sexuality.

The model’s feet are uncomfortably squeezed into the heels, and her movements are slippery on slick silver liquid, before she slowly and ominously destroys the glass pane separating the subject from the viewer.

The model’s feet are uncomfortably squeezed into the heels, and her movements are slippery on slick silver liquid, before she slowly and ominously destroys the glass pane separating the subject from the viewer.

The portrayal of a gargantuan baby splashing through silver paint.

The portrayal of a gargantuan baby splashing through silver paint.

Models are seen licking brightly colored candy on a sheet of glass. The video illustrates the moment where clarity becomes abstraction and beauty commingles with the grotesque.

Models are seen licking brightly colored candy on a sheet of glass. The video illustrates the moment where clarity becomes abstraction and beauty commingles with the grotesque.

The word “me” sinking into a bubbling puddle of metallic goo. The piece is about how narcissistic artists have to be to make their work, but by admitting their narcissism, they can at least take some steps to control it.

The word “me” sinking into a bubbling puddle of metallic goo. The piece is about how narcissistic artists have to be to make their work, but by admitting their narcissism, they can at least take some steps to control it.

Placing a word widely acknowledged as amongst the most offensive in the English language into the hands of each of the women in her video, Minter reclaims it from chauvinistic associations and rescues it from centuries of censorship and degradation.

Placing a word widely acknowledged as amongst the most offensive in the English language into the hands of each of the women in her video, Minter reclaims it from chauvinistic associations and rescues it from centuries of censorship and degradation.

First commercial art ad that was played on a late night television.

First commercial art ad that was played on a late night television.