Blue Man Group founder turns his head into wild canvas for wearable art — he’s ‘making baldness cool’

He’s a-head of his time.

Chris Wink, a New York native and one of the founding members of the iconic performance art company Blue Man Group, has found a new way to express his imaginative soul on the outside — by rocking a variety of intricate mohawks he calls “art fins.”

“I’ve got this bald head and, in a weird way, it’s kind of like a blank canvas,” Wink told The Post. 

Chris Wink, one of the founders of Blue Man Group, is “making baldness cool” with his large collection of wearable art. Here he models a Stegosaurus-inspired piece. Stephen Yang Chris Wink wears a headpiece in his psychedelic apartment. Stephen Yang Chris Wink models a blacklight reactive sacred geometry headpiece by Max Steiner and glowing face paint by Renee Orshan. Stephen Yang

“I used to have hair — with Blue Man we would put bald caps on — but at a certain point, I said, ‘F—k it. I’ll just shave it off,’” he said.

And similar to how people express their personalities through hair and nails, he realized he could do that with his head. 

Now he’s “making baldness cool.”

Once, he bought kitschy items — like these mini snow globes — “from a touristy New York shop I would never go into,” he joked. Stephen Yang

His wearable pieces range from sculptures made of toy trolls, neon forks, Pez dispensers, mini snow globes, blacklight reactive sea anemones and plastic sushi and are often compared to mohawks — but that isn’t his favorite term. 

“I don’t love calling it a mohawk because that’s a hairstyle and these are just art … art fins on my head,” he said.

‘Sense of delight’

In his world, the character Wink, inspired by Chris’ real last name, “winks and then what he is thinking manifests on his head … It just sprouts right out.” Stephen Yang

Wink has lost count of how many pieces he’s made, but he creates a few a week.

“I’ve spent way too much … thousands,” he said. He makes many of them himself with items he finds online or using random tchotchkes from his travels, and crafts items for specific events or just to walk around in them for fun. 

“I was wearing one on the street and Chris Rock came up to me and said, ‘Wow, dude, that’s crazy,’” he recalled.

He loves wearing his “punk rock” and “aerodynamic” looks out and about because it catches people off guard and gives them “a sense of delight.” 

Several of his headpieces are blacklight reactive. Stephen Yang

Wink, a dad of three, recently wore a headpiece that said “Guts” — named after Olivia Rodrigo’s album — when he went to her concert with his kids. Unlike him, his children don’t love drawing attention to themselves.

“I’m always like, ‘Kids, let’s do something crazy,’ and they’re like, ‘No, that’s dumb,'” he lamented. 

However, another dad at the concert gave him major kudos.

“My daughter made me wear this glitter but you win the prize,” the fellow father told him.

Wink World

Wink, a father of three, said his kids don’t love calling attention to themselves in the same way he does. Stephen Yang He sources his materials online or from his travels. Stephen Yang Chris said that the headpiece is just one part of the character he creates. In this photo, Renee Orshan applies makeup to his head. Stephen Yang

He first got the idea for the headpiece in 2021 after opening his psychedelic funhouse, Wink World, at the immersive entertainment venue AREA15 in Las Vegas, where he was the “Director of Cool S–t” for three years.

He has since become their creative consultant instead so he can focus on Wink World full-time.

Last fall, another Wink World opened at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, but the original Wink World started in his Manhattan apartment — which itself is a trippy playground.

Wink said his most recent hobby is a “grown-up form of play.” Stephen Yang Chris Wink said that Chris Rock once stopped him on the street to tell him he looked cool. Stephen Yang

The idea behind Wink World is that it’s an immersive dreamscape in which there’s “one eye open and one eye closed,” he said.

“The open eye is looking at the world, like at forks,” he explained while pointing to an art fin made of neon utensils. “The closed eye is the world of imagination, dreams, visions and kind of blending them so there’s this hybrid world — and I applied that to my bald head.”

In that world, the character Wink, inspired by Chris’ real last name, “winks.” The fantastical result: “What he is thinking manifests on his head … it just sprouts right out.”

Wink is the mastermind behind Wink World, a psychedelic funhouse. This photo was taken from Wink’s bathroom in his Manhattan apartment, the original Wink World. Here he models a piece he commissioned from artist Max Steiner. Stephen Yang

His inspirations are, at times, completely random.

“When I was at Mall of America, I would just roam around looking for stuff I can just fit on my head,” he explained.

While on vacation in Brazil, he wasn’t sure what kind of plug-in adapters to purchase, so he got a bunch and later turned them into art.

Wink says that when he goes dancing, he’ll sometimes opt for headpieces that move. Stephen Yang Wink has been utilizing found objects for art ever since founding the Blue Man Group. Stephen Yang

When he was in Woodstock, he bought a bunch of mini guitars, and another time he purchased stuff “from a touristy New York shop I would never go into,” Wink confessed.

“I could just picture their faces, they’re like, ‘Hey, this dude just left, and he bought 12 miniature snow globes, not just two or one,’” he quipped.

Sometimes he’ll enlist other artists to create pieces for him, such as a blacklight-reactive, sacred-geometry art fin by artist Max Steiner. 

The pieces are an outward representation of Wink’s imagination. Stephen Yang He’ll create items for specific events or simply for walking around the city. Stephen Yang He said that his art pieces often catch people off guard. Stephen Yang The idea behind Wink World is that it’s an immersive dreamscape in which there’s “one eye open and one eye closed.” Stephen Yang

Express yourself

People often come up to him to ask how he sticks the art to his head — or, more importantly, how he gets it off.

That information is “proprietary,” he said. However, he joked, “If someone wants to spend time in the adhesion community, they will find their answers for themselves.”

Wink considers his headpieces a “form of grown-up play … which I’ve been doing since Blue Man” began in 1987.

“What I learned then and what I tell young people now is that I found my way to express myself. Some people will just beat themselves up and try to fit into an existing art form,” he explained.

People often ask him how he sticks the pieces to his head, as well as how he gets them off. Stephen Yang Sometimes he has a head of glass. Stephen Yang He said he hopes his creativity will inspire others to be their authentic selves. Stephen Yang He’s not willing to give all his secrets away but warned people not to Super Glue things to their heads. Stephen Yang The headpieces are just one aspect of Wink’s character. He recently hired blacklight artist Alex Aliume to paint his face to blend in with kinetic artworks at Wink World. Kim Kun

And you won’t catch him taking himself too seriously, either.

He said headpieces aren’t high-art – they’re fun and will hopefully inspire people to break the mold.

“I just want people to laugh for a second and realize hey, we can all be a little silly, we don’t have to follow all the rules … I think this is the beauty of the message in many parts of our culture right now, which is celebrating people expressing who they are. And for me — I like to wear art on my head.”