Häsler Gómez (b. Guatemala City, Guatemala) is a sculptor who pushes the everyday toward its poetic limits to allow questions of value, perception, power, and being to arise. Through sound, light, architectural intervention, language, and objects, he creates speculative spaces and encounters rooted in the physical realities of materials, objects, and bodies. From extracting the water embedded in the air we breathe to vibrating spider webs to using roofing tar and darkness to confuse the eye, his gestures attend to the possibilities held within space, material, and form. Endlessly enamored with what things can and can’t do, his practice is an ongoing investigation into what happens when things misbehave or are misused with intention.
His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Richmond, VA), Espacio Cabeza (Guadalajara, Mexico), after / time (Portland, OR), LVL3 (Chicago, IL), Rump Gallery (Richmond, VA), Bronx River Art Center (Bronx, NY), Material Room (Richmond, VA), Coco Hunday (Tampa, FL), and Heaven Gallery (Chicago, IL).
Häsler attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and earned an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University as well as a BFA in Sculpture and a BA in Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. He is a recipient of the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture and has been an artist-in-residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), Visible Records (Charlottesville, VA), and Pollinator (Online).