Bio

(born 1975) The work of Christine Domingue Bagneris challenges the shaping of our idealized selves; how what we see mirrored in others changes our perceptions of ourselves and how to counter categorizations that demean people of ethnicity and want to present a static role of race. Coming from a Creole culture, she questions racial stereotypes from within as well as outside the black community, as she analyzes the roles that race, sexuality and communication play in our society.

Influences, which inspire Domingue Bagneris, are Kara Walker, Adriane Piper, Romare Bearden, and Patricia Villalobos. Born to Creole parents, she grew up in New Orleans and attended both Catholic and public schools. Her earliest formal art education was at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA) where she graduated high school and went on to study visual arts at Xavier University of Louisiana where she met John T. Scott. Upon her graduation from Xavier in 2003, Christine relocated to Pennsylvania where she earned her MFA degree in printmaking from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2006.

Domingue Bagneris mixes her techniques and media on canvas from very small to oversized originals. In 2002, she began pursuing layering techniques which involved transferring her B&W photographs of New Orleans neighborhood homes onto non-figurative paintings void of a head, female silhouette, symbolizing her own presumed victory to over come major struggles in her life. Indeed, the symbol of the Greek goddess, Winged Victory of Samothrace became Domingue Bagneris' signature motif and was often used to celebrate her heroines, which included artist Freda Kahlo, Barbra Kruger, Chakia Booker, and Kiki Smith.

In resent years her work developed rapidly as she explored a range of methods from the traditional printmaking, to performance, to installation. While her work engages the language of print media, her installations surpass the technical and, instead, captivate the viewer through the content of her work, first. Upon closer examination, one finds a vast array of complexity in techniques and methods as well. She moves comfortably between graphic design, drawing, printmaking, painting, installation and video.

Christine Domingue Bagneris is represented at the Steve Martin Studio Gallery on Julia Street in New Orleans and the Blackett-Peck Gallery on Royal Street in New Orleans.