Chris Regner

My recent body of work has been a meditation on my challenging upbringing. I started the semester focused on constructing paintings of father figures: semiotic stand-ins arranged from found, manipulated, and appropriated images, compiled into a flimsy unsteady mass. The images used are derived from memory, stereotypical representations of masculinity, video games and technology, and airbrush vernacular. This assortment of signs is airbrushed thinly upon a textural, archetypal male silhouette, as if projected upon a man made of clay. I view this treatment as decorative and yearning, a vain attempt at creating a stand-in for an absent mentor, a monument to short-lived experience with a degenerate father, and the confusion of longing for something that you’ve never known. The pieces don’t quite fit, but there is a desire for cohesion. In a separate but related series, I have flipped the perspective to reflect on what my father would have wanted out of a son. The attitudes I would adopt, the costumes I would wear, and the editing needed to fit the mold are on display.