Christian Bañez is a visual artist based in Bushwick, Brooklyn, working primarily in painting and drawing. Born in 1996 in Cebu City, Philippines, he holds a BFA in studio art (painting) from Missouri Western State University. His work explores identity, memory, and intimacy through observational yet dreamlike depictions of domestic space, often drawing on his experience as a formerly undocumented, queer, Asian American immigrant who grew up in rural America. Bañez has exhibited at 220 Bogart in Brooklyn, Rockella Space in Queens, Visible Records in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, and completed a residency through the New York Academy of Art's Summer Undergraduate Residency Program.

Making art is my mode of sharing perspective. Through image-making, I'm able to consolidate the abstracted thoughts and ideas I have in my head into representative imagery. I don't expect everyone that sees my artwork to fully understand my lived experience as a formerly undocumented, queer, Asian American immigrant who grew up in rural America. But there are universal themes of isolation, nostalgia, and hope in my artwork that I use to reach across any division. Through illustrating concepts of my varying identities and experiences, I've been able to share these ideas even with others who have completely different ways of life and ideals. From there, I hope to start a dialogue with viewers and leave the floor open to work out the nuanced elements together.