IMAGES

For Haskard, improvisation is a constant, manifesting in his continuous manipulation of materials over time. He builds works up, then breaks them down to rebuild something new. Haskard’s playful repurposing of individual parts suggests that the process of making is as significant as its ends. Finished works often only exist in the photographic notes he makes while working. In the gallery, Haskard has assembled a single installation he has rehearsed for months. At its center, on a table, is a life-size folksy cyborg. Cast and painted mannequin body-parts are merged with parts of a wheelbarrow: handles, carriage brackets, the wheel. The table is surrounded by a screen-structure that holds items in its netting, items that may be found in the cyborg’s “bindle bag,” an accessory most commonly associated with the figure of the hobo, which the cyborg carries on a stick over its shoulder. In its identification as a hobo, the cyborg becomes an archetype of the outcast, a trope of an idealized American beat survivalist.

Mays also works within an extended embrace of temporality, seeking and probing the boundaries of each artwork that he makes. His installations and performances are made in his carefully considered interaction with the site, drawing out its features with complimentary or opposing gestures. At 4225 Gibson, Mays has elected to work outside, creating a multi-sensorial work that fills the backyard. From behind a garage door, gently propped open by a row of cinder blocks, comes the hum of a single harmonious yet droning note of an electric air organ. In the yard, dozens of colorful balloons that have been inflated with Mays’s breath are tied with ribbon to the trees and brush in a composition that moves in the wind. Over the course of the exhibition, Mays will tend to the work and yard, replacing and adding balloons as necessary.

Skylar Haskard (b. 1977, Los Angeles) lives in Los Angeles. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include gewgaw (with Nevine Mahmoud), The Finley Gallery, Rickle Works, Sebastian Gladstone Gallery, (both Los Angeles, 2023), and Recess, Human Resources, Los Angeles (2019). Also in 2019, Haskard organized the group exhibition Compound Fracture at a historic artists’ studio building in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Mounted just prior to the building’s destruction, the exhibition featured works by artists who had lived or worked in the space over the years. Haskard was included in the four-person presentation with F at the Independent, New York, in 2023. He is a regular contributor to F Magazine.

CV

Devin T. Mays (b. 1985, Detroit) lives between Chicago and Houston. His work is currently on view in group exhibitions at the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, and Sweetwater, Berlin. He has had recent solo exhibitions at SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY, The Car Wash, Houston (both 2023), and Regards, Chicago, (2021, 2019, and 2017). Recent performances include The Day I Met the Sun, The Moody Center for the Arts, Test, Nameless Sound at the Lawndale Art Center, and Here, There, Weight, F (all Houston, 2023). Mays is a current resident at the Galveston Artist Residency (GAR), Galveston, TX, and an adjunct professor of sculpture and performance at Rice University, Houston.

CV

In gallery:

Skylar Haskard
Jungle Buzzard
2024
Tent poles, bandanas, garden netting, starburst signs, stickers, magnets, wheelbarrow parts, plaster mannequin parts, table, plastic table cloths, pipe cleaners, toothbrushes, toy shovels, plastic drinking straws, shower caddy, chocolate coins, plastic skull, clips, magnetic hooks, string, artificial flowers, styrofoam balls, buckets, cereal, cereal boxes, plastic bags, shovel, wooden dowels, sticks, mouth hand puppet, thumbs up trophies, handles
Dimensions variable

In backyard:

Devin T. Mays
In concert #1: Hold
2024
Balloons, ribbon, cinder blocks, brick and air organ
Dimensions variable

Installation photography of A Horseshoe Over a Door © Francisco Ramos

F
4225 Gibson Street
Houston, TX 77007

For more information, please contact Adam Marnie at office@fmagazine.info