Fiercely Feminine: Barbara Minch

To be accepted as a fierce and feminine woman is a relatively new societal construct. Holding an intense belief in self and forging ahead with a strong commitment to growth and evolution is part of contemporary artist Barbara Minch’s journey. Women still fight for recognition, equality, and the ability to embody many different versions of themselves over their lifetime. Joy, compassion, commitment, intelligence, wit and community are all elements of being fiercely feminine. After six decades of artistry, Minch, an award-winning New Jersey artist and Kean Alumna, returns to Kean with a powerful body of work: a collection of collages, sculptures, and paintings. The work exudes strength in a subtle feminine way that draws the viewer in closer for deeper inspection. Identity is a theme that threads through each piece giving her art depth and a genuine richness that celebrates her family’s diverse heritage, friends, and the human experience. Minch is a recipient of the New Jersey Council on the Arts fellowship 2024.

Barbara Minch graduated from Kean University with her Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1964, when the institution was Newark State Teachers College. She was taught drawing by Carl Burger and ceramics by Joseph Zapytowski, who both influenced her creative process.  

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 and Philadelphia Art Alliance. She has been in group and solo exhibitions at Gallery Henoch, New York City; Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia; and Suzanne Gross Gallery, Philadelphia.

She is in the collections of Philadelphia Airport Marriott Hotel, Amoco, CIGNA Corporation, Bell Atlantic, Fidelity National Bank, Philadelphia National Bank, Beaver College, Simon & Schuster, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, First US Bank and Somerset County College. Currently, she teaches collage at the Montclair Art Museum and is an art instructor at the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School.