Krista Anderson-Larson is a visual artist and arts administrator based in St. Paul, MN. Their sculpture, installation, and video work explores themes related to domestic spaces and gender / sexual identity through materials ranging from found objects to oil paint. Anderson-Larson has received Minnesota State Arts Board Creative Individuals and Artist Initiative grants, and was awarded the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award in 2016 from the International Sculpture Center in Hamilton, NJ. Their work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and has also been featured in several publications including Sculpture magazine and Art in America.
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My work explores the development of queer identity as experienced within the bathroom. In my practice I extract common bathroom objects and fixtures, arranging and manipulating them to create interactions that reference the body and/or its experiences within that private enclosure.
Many key physically and psychologically developmental moments take place within the private space of the domestic bathroom. It is the only place in many homes where a person can experience the true privacy needed for physical self-examination and reflection. It persists as a space that accepts arousal and sensuality while also providing a sense of safety, comfort, and private experience. These intimate moments unconsciously interlace the psyche with the physical site of the bathroom: its soft porcelain fixtures, reflective surfaces, and the little imperfections such as a cracked tile or cloudy shower curtain that become so familiar.
Particularly for queer and gender nonconforming people, like myself, these experiences play a role in how one’s body and identity are intertwined, and at times, disconnected. My work investigates and expands upon these pivotal moments, questioning what it means to have the architectural space of the bathroom intrinsically tied to the development of who a person eventually becomes.
Interventions in the form of photographs and paintings document personal scenes of paralyzing gender dysphoria as experienced in the bathroom. These moments are portrayed from an internal perspective, snapshots of what my eyes happened to fixate on as it overtook my mind. Closely cropped and detailed facets of tile, fixtures, or my own body serve as entry points to reflection on one’s own experiences with identity. By translating these moments into a tangible medium, rather than memory, I can liberate the remnants of that experience and ground it in reality. I couldn’t have been convinced that the body I was looking at in the mirror was mine, yet in painting that same body it becomes so much more familiar.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
[title forthcoming], 2027, Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Curated by: Vanessa Reubendale
Introspective, 2025, Sculpture & New Media Gallery, South Suburban College, Chicago, IL (solo)
Hardly Soft, 2025, NE Sculpture Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Curated by: Nathanael Flink
fragments of inimacy, 2024, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN (solo)
Untitled 18, 2024, Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
Curated by: Danielle Krysa (@thejealouscurator)
Unraveled: Telling Queer Stories in Cloth, 2023, Squirrel Haus Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Curated by: Anna Racecar
PARADOX, 2023, Conga Lounge, Minneapolis, MN
Curated by: Alexandra Beaumont (Public Functionary, Minneapolis, MN)
Build on this Gesture, 2023, Flaten Art Museum, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
sure as a fish in the sky; bird in the sea, 2022, Fresh Eye Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Curated by: Kehayr Brown-Ransaw (People’s Library, Minneapolis, MN)
Minneapolis Sketchbook Project, 2021, Gamut Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Speculative Futures, Present Imaginations, 2021, Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN
Midwestern Biennial, 2020, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL
Juror: Jim Dempsey (Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL)
like the inside, 2020, Waiting Room, Minneapolis, MN (solo)
this body is mine alone?, 2019, Gallery 610, Menomonie, WI (solo)
Pop-up, 2019, E&L Bindery Building, produced by Yeah Maybe, St. Paul, MN
Aesthetic Flesh, 2019, The Phipps Center for the Arts, Hudson, WI (solo)
14th Annual Small Works Show, 2018, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Juror: Nicole Kaack (Artforum International)
MN State Fair Fine Art Exhibition, 2018, MN State Fair Grounds, St. Paul, MN
Dexterity/Synergy, 2017, Thorp Building, Minneapolis, MN
Raspberry Monday, 2017, Johnson Gallery, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN
Juror: Megan Vossler (Macalester College, St. Paul, MN)
Remnant, 2017, Johnson Gallery, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN (solo)
22nd Annual ISC Student Award Exhibition, 2016, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
Altered State, 2016, Johnson Gallery, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN (solo)
PUBLICATIONS
MPLSART, “The personal, the political, and the unknowable: Three artists at SooVAC explore what it takes to metabolize distress,” by Scott Melamed, October 21, 2024
The Olaf Messenger, “Airing It All Out: Building on this Gesture Faculty Art Exhibit in Flaten Art Museum,” by Olivia Hebblewhite, March 23, 2023
Build on this Gesture exhibition catalogue, “Bath and Body Works,” by Kehayr Brown-Ransaw, 2023
Studio Visit Magazine, Vol 43, June 2019, p. 12
Sculpture Magazine, “The International Sculpture Center 2016 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards,” Vol 35 No 8, October 2016, p. 53
Art in America, “On View Now: Grounds for Sculpture,” October 2016, p. 63
"Using Art to Erase Stigma of Mental Illness," by Maggie Hradecky, Rockford Register Star, June 16, 2016
GRANTS, AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
Gimse Art Endowment, 2026, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Gimse Art Endowment, 2024, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Creative Support for Individuals Grant, 2022, Minnesota State Arts Board, St. Paul, MN
Creative Support for Individuals Grant, 2021, Minnesota State Arts Board, St. Paul, MN
Artist Initiative Grant, 2019, Minnesota State Arts Board, St. Paul, MN
People’s Choice Award, 2018, 440 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Studio Residency, 2017, mentored by Jean Shin, Brooklyn, NY
Raspberry Monday Art Award, 2017, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN
Juror's Recognition Award, Raspberry Monday, 2017, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN (Juror: Megan Vossler)
Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award, 2016, International Sculpture Center, Hamilton, NJ