Transformation Face Painting - Christopher Agostino

Christopher Agostino is a performer and visual artist who began painting faces in 1976 and never stopped (Why would he? It's too much fun!). From his training in theatrical makeup and graphic arts he developed a technique for quickly transforming a human face. Drawing inspiration from cultural sources — from the Amazon to Africa to the Chinese Opera — Christopher paints in a unique mask-like style with bold designs that capture the essential quality of traditional body art. As a modern practitioner of this profound and ancient art, he creates faces that are more than decorations, fulfilling the traditional function of the mask-maker to give the wearer a subjective experience of being transformed into a new identity.

The faces are painted so quickly, in three minutes or less, that this becomes a true performance art — as exciting to watch as to be painted. Along the way he founded Transformation! Facepainting, a dedicated company of artists that bring the art of transformation to about two hundred events annually throughout the New York tristate region. At a Transformation! Facepainting event every face is different, every face is a creative work of art. In thirteen years of public events at the world-famous Bronx Zoo they have painted tens of thousands of adults and children, setting a standard within the New York entertainment industry and transforming the idea of what a painted face can be.

Christopher has turned facepainting into a stage performance in “The Transformation! Show”, combining his art with storytelling to bring folktales and his original stories to life on the faces of the audience for festivals, theaters and schools. His performance/lecture, “The World History of Masks and Facepainting”, was the opening presentation
at the 2003 Face and Body Art International Convention, where he has also been a featured instructor. Christopher, and/or his work, has appeared on the NBC Today Show, the
CBS Early Show and the cover of
the Abercrombie & Fitch Spring Quarterly 2000.

His thirty year adventure in this unconventional art is chronicled in his forthcoming book "Transformations! The Story Behind the Painted Faces", to be published internationally by Kryolan. He lives in Baldwin, NY with his wife and performing partner, Lorraine, and their two children. He and Lorraine are the directors of Agostino Arts, a theater and event company presenting their amazing facepainting and original theatrical productions, including their bonafide hit arts-in education program: "The Bodacious Book Show".