Nathan Hrdlicka


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Art

Writing

Candy Darling

Undergraduate


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Nathan Hrdlicka is an interdisciplinary artist and art historian based in Baltimore, MD. Originally from Rochester, MN, he moved to Baltimore to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with majors in Art History, and General Fine Arts, alongside minors in Painting and Curatorial Studies in May 2025. Hrdlicka’s studio practice spans painting, photography, fiber, and sculpture, often incorporating  found objects to explore materiality and historical narratives. He recently unveiled a new body of work, Flying, Flagging, Freeing, at the MICA Artwalk thesis exhibition in May 2025. Hrdlicka’s art historical focus is on Modern Art, particularly the developments in New York during the 1960s to1980s. He has studied Candy Darling and iconic photographs taken of her, published in his thesis paper Iconic Darling: Candy Darling’s Revolutionary Trans Body.



Artist’s Statement

Discarded materials - bedsheets, mattress supports, curtains, buttons,  transformed into abstract forms that challenge our understanding of history, identity, and culture. These everyday materials are used to decentralize the process of artmaking; I believe that any object has the potential to be art. This value is especially important as discarded materials continuously linger in thrift stores, landfills, and as pollution. I adhere to the ideals of experimentation, abstraction, and interdisciplinary making that were held by Modernists. Abstraction allows me to emphasize materiality in my artwork before subjectivity. I work in a mode of gestural abstraction in cohabitation with the fiber art techniques of sewing, dyeing, and weaving. I value thread, dye, and paint equally and embrace the unpredictability of each medium. 

I use exaggerated verticality and horizontality to create banner and flag-like forms that hang from branches, walls, occupy windows, and sit solemnly in the corner. The banner is a tool that has been used throughout human history to identify groups of people; they have been used for celebration, advertising, protest, and war. Through abstraction of the banner I question my personal identities: nationality, gender, culture, and childhood. Once completed, hanging installations are used to  yield control of the artwork and allow audience and environmental interactions. The banner does not exist just for oneself, and in turn art does not exist just for oneself. 




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contact: nathanhrdlicka.art@gmail.com
instagram: @nathgems