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about LYDIA HANSEN
Lydia Hansen is a fiber and installation artist whose work envisions the environment as neighbor and friend. Through tactile sculpture and large-scale fiber installations, they design art experiences to reawaken audiences into active observation of the natural world. Their work occupies a space between visual and experiential art.
Hansen came to art in 2020 after burnout and depression forced them out of their dream career as a journalist. Art-making replaced interviewing as their medium for conversing with the wider world. Hansen leans on nearly two decades experience as a self-taught fiber artist to drive ongoing experimentation with form and material as they continue to reinvent themselves through an evolving art practice. They are a crocheter, sewist, sculptor, and environmental educator; more roles are yet to be uncovered.
Recent works have included collaboration with experts in environmental education and science to produce site-embedded art experiences. Since their first exhibition in 2023 at Threshold Arts (Rochester, MN), Hansen's art has reached audiences at Pump House Arts (La Crosse, WI), Austin Artworks (Austin, MN), Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center (Lanesboro, MN) and Bloomington Center for the Arts (Bloomington, MN). Additional works are forthcoming in 2027 across Olmsted County (MN) and at Calendula Gallery (Saint Paul, MN).