Holstad entered the art world in 1994 with a show at art dealer and now-gallerist Daniel Reich's apartment on 21st Street in New York. Since then, this soft-spoken, informal artist has exhibited his work extensively in venues across the world, including the recent Lyon Biennial. There he turned the gallery into a campy clubhouse complete with black sand, cutoff shorts and party banners—picture a gay surf shack orgy after the lights come on.

Much of Holstad's work is informed by the trappings of gay subcultures:'70s porn, the leather scene and drag balls(parties where drag kings and queens compete in categories like “realness” and vogueing) have all entered his work at one time or another. In his most well-known series of collages, for instance, figures of men (like those from vintage porn) are pastiched into spaces made from clippings of home décor. These are combined with borrowed patterns or negative space subbed in for most of the dirty bits, making the dreamy scenes look a bit like sex on the astral plane.

Outside of collage, in addition to his two-dimensional works, Holstad also works in sculpture, installation and performance. One of the only constants across these various media is that assemblage is de rigueur. Whether in near-life-size soft sculpture donkeys, jukeboxes installed in fast food restaurants, or handmade chandeliers, Holstad uses found objects, craft material and clothing to make bright, dense works. Incorporating everything from human hair and used underwear to wheatgrass and iron rods, his works address and personalize a dehumanizing, day-glo culture—and collapse an otherwise hierarchical list of referents too long to list here. In Holstad's world, Grace Jones and militant eco-activist groups share center stage, S&M fights disco for the last thing in the blue light special aisle and everyone bleeds sparkles.