By Drew Thompson

Häsler Gómez was about to board the subway in New York City when he learned of his nomination for the Dedalus MFA Fellowship. Overcome by surprise and honor, he stood rooted to the platform as his train went on its way.

The waiting had just begun – not just for another train, but for the fellowship selection process to conclude. After his nomination this past fall, Gómez submitted eight work samples and then refelt the joy tenfold with the announcement this year of his win.

“When I found out, I was in my studio and I just started crying,” said Gómez, a native of Guatemala who earned his Master of Fine Arts degree this spring from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts. “It was just insane to think that I could come from a really small town, to think that I could come here and then win this. I guess I could have never imagined that.”

The Dedalus Foundation, founded by acclaimed American artist Robert Motherwell, supports the appreciation of modern art and the principles of modernism. It awards fellowships in painting and sculpture annually to four final-year students graduating from an MFA degree program in the United States. Each fellowship carries a $15,000 stipend to support the recipient’s future in art.

Kendall Buster, graduate director in the VCUarts Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, nominated Gómez.

“Häsler excelled in all aspects of the program,” she said. “His studio work is conceptually rich, rooted in substantive material explorations as well as an exceptionally strong creative writing practice.”

Gómez’s art journey began at the University of Nevada, where he intended to study neuroscience and become a doctor. But his deeper passion prevailed. Halfway through college, he switched majors to psychology and then added sculpture, graduating with degrees in both fields in 2017.

“I just realized that if I only had one chance to actually do something, then I should do what I always wanted to do,” Gómez said. “There was nothing else that could really allow me to bring in all my interests into one singular thing like art could.”

After graduation, he contributed to publications, group exhibitions, solo exhibitions and art panels. In 2023, he traveled across the country to pursue his MFA at VCUarts.

“At VCU, everyone’s so different, and each cohort is always really different,” Gómez said. “I knew it would be a place where I would be taken seriously if I went there, but also I’d be really open to explore the kind of artist I wanted to be.”

In Richmond, he worked on some pieces that would later be featured in his Dedalus bid, notably “A FORCED PERSPECTIVE, 2024,” “A GRAIN OF SALT BETWEEN TWO TONGUES” and “IN OBLIVION'S LIGHT, 2024.”

Gómez’s art conceptualizes the everyday differently, in part by exploring what could be beyond it. Whether puddles on a sidewalk or the humidity in a car on a hot summer day, Gómez focuses on what those spaces and the materials in them can do to create an intense piece of art.

Gómez recalls a moment at VCU when the windows facing Broad Street inside a makeshift gallery became his canvas. He tinted the windows and turned off the room lights off, causing the cars that drove by to cast colors inside the room – and creating a live painting.

The classroom also influenced Gómez’s perspective, as his duties as a graduate teaching assistant have shaped his view on learning.

“The professors give their students a lot of freedom to explore, a lot of freedom to fail,” he said. “That was really exciting to learn from those perspectives – like, you can have a structured educational system, but it can also be really free at the same time.”

Buster praised how Gómez served his peers and colleagues.

“Häsler affirmed for his fellow students and his faculty the power of honesty, inquisitiveness, generosity and commitment in a studio practice,” Buster said. “Häsler also embodies the value of mindful looking, patience, fortitude and grace in the face of challenges.”

Gómez plans to use his Dedalus Fellowship while acting as an artist in residence at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art – and embracing the influence of VCU.

“VCU was my dream school,” he said. “It’s always going to be part of my history. It’s always going to be part of me.”