Genius Loci Reaching Gentle Heights (Greg in the Hallway with Pillars of Faith)
Christian Holstad
American, born 1972
2003
A cut-and-pasted printed-paper collage that stages a casually dressed figure (the ‘Greg’ of the title) in a chandeliered, state-like hallway disrupted by oversized pastel pillars and bold white outlines, turning public ceremony into a personal tableau.
You first notice the clash of tones—the gilded grandeur of the corridor and flags flattened and punctured by candy-colored columns, cartoonish white borders, a red carpet that funnels to a small man clutching flowers and looking up.
Holstad updates collage and institutional critique by stitching found imagery and graphic interventions into theatrical scenes that question power, ritual, and identity within official spaces.
Medium
Cut-and-pasted printed paper on paper
Dimensions
11 3/8 x 21 1/2" (28.9 x 54.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift
Accession
1890.2005
Palette
Exhibitions
