Artist Marilyn Minter and Creative Polymath Michèle Lamy on Sex, Aging, and the Power of Nonconformity

Through their respective creative practices, artist Marilyn Minter and designer, performer, and curator Michèle Lamy have each challenged and redefined traditional notions of beauty.

- By Marilyn Minter

Minter in her Manhattan studio.

Through their respective creative practices, artist Marilyn Minter and designer, performer, and curator Michèle Lamy have each challenged and redefined traditional notions of beauty.

In the 1980s, Minter sent shock waves through the art world with her overtly sexualized images of women, which sought to reclaim the visual language of sex from what she viewed as an abusive and exploitative history and also railed against the commodification of the female form. As Minter's practice evolved, she began to create glossy, hyper-realistic paintings and stylized photographs of bodies-wrinkles, pimples, pubic hair, running mascara, and all as a means of normalizing so-called flaws and critiquing the unrealistic standards of beauty propagated by advertising and fashion.

With her signature henna-dyed fingertips and gold-plated grill, Lamy-an indelible fixture within the fashion and art worlds and the wife of designer Rick Owens-continues to exemplify the beauty of individuality. As the cofounder of Owenscorp, which she launched with Owens in 2004, Lamy oversees the company's art and home divisions, curating multimedia exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world and collaborating on home furnishings in the duo's signature gothic-futurist aesthetic. Lamy has also served as one of Minter's subjects: In 2014, Minter photographed her for a series celebrating women who are aging naturally.

In mid-March, as Russian forces continued to advance in Ukraine, Minter and Lamy reconnected to discuss the roles of art and beauty in times of crisis and the importance of inclusive female representation.