At the beginning of 2024, Damien Hoar de Galvan set himself a strict studio rhythm from his home in Milton, just outside of Boston: one small wood assemblage every day, for 12 months. 3I thought it would be a good way to change up how I was making things, new materials, work faster, etc., the artist writes, noting the challenges of raising a teenage daughter during COVID while continuing to make and sell work. What began as a private discipline soon took on an unexpected public life.
A year of small sculptures
Working largely without preliminary sketches, Hoar de Galvan rarely planned compositions before gluing and painting scraps of reclaimed wood. He would start with a single draw 7a shape or color and let the piece unfold. 3There might be a feeling or impulse that pushes me in a general direction when starting a new one5 Im usually surprised along the way as they inevitably start dictating what they want to be, he shares. A trip to Barcelona briefly interrupted the cadence, and by the end of 2024, he had amassed 362 sculptures just four short of the leap year total.
Exhibition wasnt the goal. 3I wasnt sure if Id be able to stick to the whole year and had no plan as to what to do with all the sculptures or how to show them all, he says. Yet the daily practice built momentum and ideas. 3Thinking back to the sculpture a day, I made so many that sometimes an idea would pop up, and I knew there wasnt time to change what I was working on for that day, but I would try it at some other point. There were some invisible connections running through them all, Hoar de Galvan reflects.
From studio shelves to the museum
After ICA Boston curator Tessa Bachi Haas requested a studio visit, the project shifted course. Hoar de Galvan later received the 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize, a biannual award that includes an exhibition at the museum. Installed as I dont think Im ever gonna figure it out (titled after the Elliot Smith song), the complete collection appeared atop five long shelves at ICA/Boston.
Together, the works read as both diverse and tightly knit: vibrant fragments of reclaimed wood fan into pointed geometries, unusual comb-esque silhouettes interlock like a puzzle, and radial lines sweep outward like a starburst. Standing just a few inches tall, each object marks a days decision; assembled en masse, they chart a year of devotion and experimentation.
Hoar de Galvan is currently working toward exhibitions at Tokyos Gallery Side2 and Gallery Naga, where hes represented.
