Marc Selwyn Fine Art is pleased to present Favorite Planet, an exhibition of photographs, paintings, and sculptures by Jaylon Israel Hicks, a conceptual artist based in Houston, Texas.
This exhibition contains nine works, each influenced by the aesthetics and materiality of baseball. Upon returning to Texas after a period living in Minnesota, Hicks rekindled his appreciation for the sport, which he grew up both playing and watching. Returning to his roots, Hicks felt inspired by the James Baldwin quote: “Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.” This suggestion prompted an internal search about where Hicks feels the most at home, and what that concept truly means to him. He expands the connotation of home and intertwines it with baseball through a series of home plate sculptures and other references to the physical elements of the game included in this exhibition.
When further considering the origins of baseball, Hicks found it to be deeply rooted in nature. Baseball is played outside with equipment made from organic materials, and in its early days, it was customary for games to take place in yards and deserted, open fields, nestled amongst trees. Hicks believes these origins are connected to baseball’s peaceful atmosphere. The photographic works included in this exhibition set the tone of the show and remind us of baseball’s bucolic beginnings. Unlike basketball, for example, baseball is a slow sport that lends itself to a restful, meditative pacing. Hicks sees it as a form of escape while simultaneously considering just how much, in life and baseball, is left to fate.
Inspired by these ideas, Hicks’ exhibition is derived from these nostalgic, familiar, and natural characteristics that are, for him, inextricably linked to baseball. While the sport works as a foundational guide for his sculptures, Hicks was dedicated to not simply recreating a synthetic display of baseball but exploring its overall materiality. As a longtime student of Material Science, Hicks experiments with combinations of mediums, inventing his own entirely new materials based on elements such as plastic. Plastic represents not just modernity, but a lasting and omnipresent destructive element of our environment.
Hicks also delves into the social aspects of the sport. Baseball is synonymous with American culture and carries the weight of its history and racial dynamics, as well as the sports icons and fandoms within it that span generations. Hicks believes in the communal nature of baseball and feels that in its most pure form, it is a shared human experience.
While Favorite Planet pays tribute to the foundational, authentic elements of baseball, at the same time it exposes the realities of our current societal and environmental dynamics.
Jaylon Hicks was born in 1993 in Houston, TX, and continues to live and work there. He has previously exhibited twice in 2023 with the Maximillian William Gallery in London, UK. His first solo exhibit was mounted in Houston, TX at Kaboom Books in 2015.
