CHRISTIAN HASTAD


profile
northern dawn
the gate
the garden at dusk
mirrorlab projects

instagram



Installation of “Northern Dawn” at Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX, 2025
“Northern Dawn” (2025) is an MFA thesis exhibition that explores memory, migration, and the fragmentation of personal history through archival photographs, sculptural forms, and image-based installations. Drawing from a collection of photographs taken by the artist’s grandmother during a return visit to Norway in the 1960s, the exhibition examines how familial narratives intersect with broader questions of national identity, time, and cultural displacement. Through processes of printing, embedding, tearing, and layering, the work challenges the pace of contemporary image consumption, inviting viewers into a space of slowed reflection and tactile engagement. “Northern Dawn” merges synthetic materials with intimate imagery, forming a complex landscape of grief, distance, and transformation.

Alternate view of “Northern Dawn”
Installation of (left to right) “field”, “pinch”, and “pattern”, 2025
“field”, inkjet, stitched synthetic canvas, mesh, acrylic sheet, hardware, 2025
“pinch”, inkjet, stitched sythetic canvas, mesh, acrylic sheet, hardware, 2025
“pattern”, inkjet, wood panel, diffusion sheets, graphite, mesh, acrylic sheet, hardware, aluminum, 2025
Installation of “Mangle (Double)”, 2025
Installation view of “Northern Dawn”, 2025
Installion of “Northern Dawn”, 2025
“net”, dyed resin, panel, inkjet, stitched canvas, hardware, 2025
“island”, dyed resin, panel, inkjet, stitched cavnas, hardware, 2025 
“Weather Vane (Rabbit)”, 3D printed PLA, enamel

“The Gate” (2024) is an installation-based series of work that investigates surveillance, myth, and the psychological effects of digital acceleration. At its center stands a 3D-printed sculpture of Cerberus, the mythological guardian of the underworld—reimagined as a somber, watchful figure surveying a fractured landscape of stretched canvases, inkjet prints, and sculptural panels. These modular forms are collaged, stitched, and mounted with painted and printed canvas, evoking the aesthetics of smooth digital surfaces while resisting clarity and coherence. Drawing on personal archive, classical symbolism, and contemporary media theory, “The Gate” reflects on the body as both observer and observed, and on the shifting boundaries between memory, mythology, and mediated experience.



Installation of “The Gate” at University of Texas, Austin, 2024


Alternate view of “The Gate”, 2024
“flash”, shaped panel, canvas, oil, 3D print, 2024
Alternate view of “The Gate”, 2024
“covenant”, canvas panel diptych, oil, 2024
“transfer”, panel, inkjet pinted canvas, T.V. mount, 2024

“The Garden at Dusk” (2023) is a large-scale installation that explores themes of digital acceleration, ecological interconnectivity, and symbolic fragmentation. Through a combination of 3D-printed sculpture, stretched inkjet prints, and modular compositional elements, the work examines how natural forms and mythic symbols are distorted under the pressures of technological speed and mediated perception. Central to the installation is the recurring motif of the garden—not as a site of serenity, but as a space warped by data flows, collapsed timelines, and artificial reproduction. By merging synthetic materials with organic imagery, The Garden at Dusk constructs a landscape in flux, where the boundaries between nature, myth, and machine begin to dissolve.



Installation of “The Garden at Dusk” at University of Texas, Austin, 2023


Alternate view of “The Garden at Dusk”, 2023
Installation of (left to right) "Almanac", "Arbor (Flip)", and "White Rabbit", 2023.

“Garden Statue (Mars)”, printed PLA, 2023
“Saturn”, canvas, mesh, oil, inkjet, 2023
“Garden Statue (Cupid)”, printed PLA, 2023
Installation of “(left to right) "The Wind", inkjet on stretched vinyl, "MELD", inkjet on mesh over panel, "Burn", inkjet on stretched vinyl, 2023.
“Burn”, inkjet on stretched vinyl, 2023
“night clouds”, oil on canvas, 2023
“Garden Statue (Dark Rabbit)”, printed PLA, 2023
Installation of (left to right) "Barn Owl", "Snakeskin", and "Fox Hunt", 2023


MirrorLab Projects, Backburner and One of One

MirrorLab is an artist-run collective studio and programming space located in the heart of South Minneapolis, MN. In 2023 Christian Hastad became a member of MirrorLab and co-curated two exhibitions alongside local artists.

Backburner (2023) was a group exhibition co-curated by Christian Hastad and artist Forrest Wasko, celebrating the work of seven Minneapolis-based artists: Lisa Kill, Casey Deming, Kristina Johnson, Madeleine Chicoine, Pearl Davis, Forrest Wasko, and Christian Hastad. The exhibition brought together diverse practices—ranging from sculpture and painting to printmaking, photo, and installation—and offered a platform for emerging and mid-career voices in the Twin Cities art community. Opening in July 2023 at MirrorLab, Backburner served as both a snapshot and a celebration of creative energy shaped by place, collaboration, and timing.

One of One (2023) was a duo exhibition featuring collaborative works by Christian Hastad and Madeline Chamberlain. The show explored themes of duplication, intimacy, and material experimentation through a series of jointly created pieces that blurred the boundaries of authorship and process. Held at MirrorLab in June 2023, the exhibition emphasized a shared visual language and highlighted the potential of collaboration as a generative mode of making.


Installation of One of One at MirrorLab, Minneapolis, MN, 2023


Installation of One of One, 2023 (works by Christian Hastad and Madeline Chamberlain)
Christian Hastad, “Harmless Fun”, canvas panels, inkjet, wood spacers, acrylic, oil, 2023
Installation of One of One, 2023 (works by Madeline Chamberlain)
“Street View (Low Res)”, inkjet on stitched canvas, Madeline Chamberlain and Christian Hastad, 2023
“Street View (Hi Res)”, inkjet on stitched canvas, Madeline Chamberlain and Christian Hastad, 2023
Installation of Backburner, 2023
Installation of Backburner, 2023
Installation of Backburner with close-up of work by Kristina Johnson, 2023
Christian Hastad, “all eyes”, acrylic on wood panels, 2023


Christian Hastad



christianhastad@gmail.com
Instagram

Christian Hastad (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist from the quiet edges of Minnesota, now based in Austin, Texas. His work navigates the blurred boundaries between memory, digital acceleration, and material trace. Working across painting, installation, and sculpture, he creates objects and images that hold tension between mediated experience and immediate perception. In 2025, he earned his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was awarded the Academic Excellence Fellowship in 2024. That same year, he participated in the SOMA Summer residency in Mexico City, deepening his inquiry into place, time, and transformation. He holds a dual BA in Fine Arts and Sociology from the University of Minnesota (2020), and has exhibited work nationally. His practice is rooted in the poetics of time, environment, and the fragile architectures of remembrance.



Education

MFA, University of Texas at Austin, 2025
BA in Fine Arts & Sociology, University of Minnesota, 2020

Residencies

Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT, 2025
SOMA Summer, Mexico City, MX, 2024
Rafter, Minneapolis, MN, 2020

Awards

Wolf E. Jessen Scholarship for the Arts, 2025
Academic Excellence Fellowship, UT Austin, 2024

Exhibitions

(upcoming) Horizons
After Hours
St. Paul, MN
2025

(current) Acceleration Without Arrival
Visual Arts Center
Austin, TX
2025

Retracing the Rubicon
Visual Arts Center
Austin, TX
2024

Re-Imagining the Ney
Elisabet Ney Museum
Austin, TX
2023

Backburner
MirrorLab
Minneapolis, MN
2023

One of One
MirrorLab,
Minneapolis, MN
2023

Visually Similar Images
Holland East Gallery
Minneapolis, MN
2022

A Year In
Target Gallery
Alexandria, VA
2021

Starpower
Katherine E. Nash Gallery
Minneapolis, MN
2020

Cloud Data
Regis Center for Arts
Minneapolis, MN
2020

Collective (In)Action
Memorial Union Gallery
Fargo, ND
2019

Thaw
New Rules
Minneapolis, MN
2019





 return