Holstad's varied art practice—drawing, performance, installation, and sculpture—is united in its homespun, crafty aesthetic and labor–intensive techniques that evoke nostalgia and escape. In his ongoing Erasurehead series, Holstad contributes to the Pop art tradition of altering newspaper images to inject ironic social commentary. Through erasing and hand-drawn doctoring, Holstad "undoes" images from the popular press, configuring ghoulish or pathetic versions of the figures.
Gallery label from Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, April 22, 2009–January 4, 2010.