MOCA at Goldman Warehouse. Christian Holstad: Terms of Endearment

From Sep 9th through Nov 5th, 2006MOCA at Goldman Warehouse is presenting the exhibition Christian Holstad: Terms of Endearment, the first US solo museum show of the New York artist. The exhibition includes a large-scale installation and 40 new drawings from Holstad’s Eraserhead series. Personal memory and nostalgia make an important part of Holstad’s art. The artist transforms everyday materials and recognizable ordinary objects into his installations, reminiscing themes of love, caress and affection. His works express the conflicts of the “eternal child” that endures within every artist’s mind, in contraposition with the grown up person and his inevitable task of interpreting and understanding life. But his intentions are beyond representing his inner self, more specifically, he is interested in manipulating context by creating environments that would trigger the audience’s inner feelings and existential conflicts. He is presenting a large installation of life-size sculptures of “quas” donkeys made of recycled wool from men’s suits and chicken wire. Referencing nativity scenics, the creatures placidly rest in the exhibition space while a jukebox covered in shredded yellow wool made from old sweaters, plays melancholy ballads sang by female singers. For the artist, growing up has little to do with mindless fun, but with acknowledging and accumulating experiences that gradually vanish while leaving a sense of loss and longing for what used to protect us. The figures in the installation dwell – as is the artist’s belief – in an eternal cycle of growth and dissolution. Also part of the exhibition are 40 drawings using black and white newspaper photos that the artist has partially erased. The results are like those ghostly images that undermine most of our bad dreams. We can see the main figures disappear with this method, but hands and heads of the figures are carefully preserved. These particular series will demand more than the first glimpse to be assimilated. Again the conflict appears as the main course of every piece, manifesting the careful selection of every image, as well as the disorienting intentions of the artist. The drawings are charged with a notion of compassion that places the work within a spiritual realm, that one where the artist exists and is communicating from. For more information please call: 305.893.6211