Christian Hastad is an artist from the quiet edges of Minnesota, currently based in Austin, Texas. His work explores the blurred boundaries between memory, digital acceleration, and material trace, using slow, deliberate image-making as a way to examine how visual experience is mediated, stored, and felt.
Working from fleeting, often incidental visual moments, Hastad’s paintings rebuild images through layered, attentive processes that allow them to unfold gradually. What begins as a quick capture or passing impression is transformed into something sustained and reflective, resisting the weightlessness of digital imagery. In this way, his work offers a counterpoint to the constant production and consumption of images, inviting a slower, more intimate form of looking.
Motifs such as the body and its gestures recur throughout his work, functioning as points of contact between physical presence and digital interaction. These elements reflect an ongoing interest in how lived experience, nostalgia, and charm persist within an increasingly overwhelming visual atmosphere.
Hastad earned his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2025 and holds a dual BA in Fine Arts and Sociology from the University of Minnesota (2020). He has exhibited work nationally.
