Domenica Brockman is an abstract painter whose work explores geometry, color, and surface.  Her preferred medium is encaustic paint (pigmented wax and resin) on wood panels, often working with the shape of the square, using it alone and in grids, and utilizing a restricted palette and varied textures.  In her grid paintings, the panels are painted and then broken apart and reassembled to create compositions that feel as if they have come about by chance, but are in fact the product of long deliberation.  

Born in the U.S. and raised in various African countries, Domenica’s work is influenced by her passion for hand woven textiles from around the world, particularly Kuba grass cloth weavings from the Congo, mud cloth from Mali, and Phulkari embroidered tapestries from India.  The breaks in pattern that come about by happenstance in the making of a repetitive design, the places where there is evidence of a human hand, not a machine, is what inspires her the most. In this spirit, she fuses a traditional handmade sensibility with contemporary aesthetics rooted in minimalism and non-objective imagery.

Domenica has a BFA from Cornell University, and a Post Baccalaureate degree from the School of Visual Arts.  When she is not in her studio painting, she runs “Petrune Vintage”, a clothing store that she owns with her husband, and “The Petrune Gallery”, an art exhibition space in Ithaca, NY.  She is co-founder of the Cayuga Arts Collective, a nonprofit organization for artists in the Finger Lakes Region.