Christian Holstad

In his installations, performances, collages, and drawings, Christian Holstad mixes high and low culture to explore issues of gay identity. He is known for his labor-intensive collages (which often depict erotic couplings of men whose bodies are cut out of decorative patterns in magazines) and his use of craft techniques like quilting, knitting, and sewing. In his 2007 work Leather Beach, he transformed a former New York deli into an installation about pre-AIDS gay leather culture, offering up handmade faux fetish gear assembled from pompoms, chains, hair, vegetable matter, and glitter. Interested in communal experience and activity, in 2009 Holstad used embroidery and stitching atop white-towel canvases to create free-standing soft-sculpture urinals that incorporate detritus like cigarette butts, French fries, and condom wrappers.