Growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Christoper Regner fell in love with the artistic practice via comic art, inspiring many poorly drawn copies of Sonic the Hedgehog and Spiderman, he tells Its Nice That. Following years of copying other peoples drawings, Chris serendipitously ended up at an arts-focused high school where he was encouraged to create artwork reflecting his own experiences. Followed by an undergrad in drawing and an MFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, Oddly enough I find myself depicting things that inspired me as a child again, such as video games, super soakers and the like, he explains.
The result is a painting practice which is uniquely personal to Chris, yet leaves plenty of room for interpretation for the viewer. Describing the work he makes as autobiographical, satirical, grotesque, and humiliating, each of the artists works visually build connections between his experiences and grander narratives or mythologies. This is a way for the viewer to better understand the specifics of the personal narratives that Im conveying, says Chris, pointing to subjects such as masculinity, technology and ideologies. Each approached with a lick of satire, as a means to criticise and create empathy for the subject matter I am depicting, the layers of his artworks, their meanings and the crafted techniques used, create pieces youll find yourself endlessly staring at.
Though he mentions the themes in his work, its difficult to assume the deeper subject matter of Chris works given the vastness of references which often appear. Asking the artist further about this approach, he explains: I tend to humiliate myself frequently in the work, highlighting his Thats My Boy series as an example of self-portraits of my failures, neurotic nature, and vices as a flawed person. For instance, in Thats My Boy No.5 (Father Devouring Son Devouring Son), the artist channels his own feelings via the ancient myth of Goyas Saturn Devouring His Son. Visually considering a new fathers fears of continuing a cycle of abuse and the fear of being taken over by youth, Chris combines animals and human limbs as a way to discuss my own fears and inner conflicts, and the fight between nature and nature, he says.read more
Get to know the autobiographical and satire-driven works of artist Chris Regner
