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. \t3I thought it would be a good way to change up how I was making things, new materials, work faster, etc.,\t 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.<\/p>\n
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\t7a shape or color\tand let the piece unfold. \t3There might be a feeling or impulse that pushes me in a general direction when starting a new one\b5 I\u0019m usually surprised along the way as they inevitably start dictating what they want to be,\t he shares. A trip to Barcelona briefly interrupted the cadence, and by the end of 2024, he had amassed 362 sculptures\tjust four short of the leap year total.<\/p>\n
Exhibition wasn\u0019t the goal. \t3I wasn\u0019t sure if I\u0019d 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,\t he says. Yet the daily practice built momentum and ideas. \t3Thinking back to the sculpture a day, I made so many that sometimes an idea would pop up, and I knew there wasn\u0019t 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,\t Hoar de Galvan reflects.<\/p>\n
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 don\u0019t think I\u0019m ever gonna figure it out<\/em> (titled after the Elliot Smith song), the complete collection appeared atop five long shelves at ICA\/Boston.<\/p>\n 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 day\u0019s decision; assembled en masse, they chart a year of devotion and experimentation.<\/p>\n Hoar de Galvan is currently working toward exhibitions at Tokyo\u0019s Gallery Side2 and Gallery Naga, where he\u0019s represented.<\/p>\n