Häsler R. Gómez (h.r.g.) was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 1993, but has lived in the deserts of Reno, Nevada since the age of four. Growing up around the construction sites his father and eventually himself worked on, Gómez developed an affinity and respect for the materials they used on a daily basis, as well as a need to labor and make. His work predominantly deals with issues of personal, political, and social desire and probe the complexities and connections between immigration, oppression, and gender.

His work makes reference to the home, the construction site, and sacred spaces in order to give voice, physicality, and space to memorialize the daily traumas experienced by marginalized individuals. Gómez’s work is steeped in the poetics of oppression: from a reductive visual language to a limited use of materials to esoteric references, his work hinges on creating a power dynamic where the work and the viewer are simultaneously the oppressor and the oppressed; the works vacillate between being immediate/mundane and being silent/inaccessible, yet the viewer holds the power to create meaning and assign significance. In doing this, he aims to create a space that presents narratives that assert resilience and resistance rather than aggression and defeat.

Gómez holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. He is the founder and creative director of AVE COLLECTIVE, an artist collective aimed at addressing representation within and outside the gallery context. He currently works out of Stead, NV.

You can find more of Häsler’s work on his site: www.haslergomez.com

Or via Instagram: @haslergomez