Damian Francis Wagner

Damian Francis Wagner is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans painting, sculpture, sound design, performance, and environmental installation. His practice explores the boundaries between perception and emotion, control and chaos, using a range of materials, from canvas and steel to custom-built audio systems.

With a career that bridges experimental sound and visual art, Wagner is known for immersive, emotionally resonant experiences that touch on the spiritual, environmental, and metaphysical. He has collaborated with visionary artists like Doug Aitken, and developed groundbreaking projects such as the Sonic Pavilion at Instituto Inhotim in Brazil, which transmits the real-time sound of the Earth’s core using custom-engineered geophones and deep-earth microphones.

Wagner's work has been featured in major international venues and media, including MOMA (as part of Aitken's Interiors), Tape-Op Magazine, and Public Radio International. His live multimedia performance DOM, created in collaboration with the Brazilian experimental music group O Grivo, was staged at Teatro Dulcina in Brasília as a tribute to the iconic actress and arts advocate Dulcina de Moraes.

A lifelong creator with a background in music engineering (includin...

University of Minnesota — Fine Arts (attended)
Minneapolis, MN 1985

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) — Studio Arts / New Media (attended)
Los Angeles, CA 1999

2015:
• Live Art Happening – Gap New York, NY (Commissioned)
Immersive happening featuring video, painting, music and performance.

2012:
• Multimedia Activation – Apple (Commissioned)
Custom live performance integrating sculpture and sound.

2011
• Artillery Magazine, Private happening, Venice, featuring sculpture, paintings and music.

2010
• DOM Tribute Performance – Honestino Guimarães National Museum, Brasília, Brazil (Solo / Featured)
Presented by Faculdade de Artes Dulcina de Moraes, with support from the Ministry of Culture.

2009
• Sonic Pavilion – Instituto Inhotim, Minas Gerais, Brazil (Collaboration with Doug Aitken)
Permanent sound installation featuring live Earth-recorded audio.

2007
• Creative Time Group Show – Creative Time, New York, NY
Painting “345” with embedded sound recording and excerpts from daily notes.

2001
• Interiors – Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY (Collaboration with Doug Aitken)
Film and sound installation, part of the permanent collection.