Urs Fischer

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Urs Fischer
Born 1973 (age 50–51)
Switzerland
Nationality Swiss
Education Schule fur Gestaltung, Zurich
Known for photography, contemporary art
Website www.ursfischer.com

Urs Fischer (born 1973) is a Swiss-born neo-Dada sculptor[1] living in New York.

Education and early career

Born to two doctors as the second of two children in 1973,[2] Fischer began his career in Switzerland where he studied photography at the Schule für Gestaltung, Zurich.[3] After the basic, first-year course in art and design, he enrolled in the school’s photography department, and supported himself by working as a bouncer at Zurich night clubs and house parties.[4]

Fischer moved to Amsterdam in 1993, at the age of nineteen, and had his first solo show at a gallery in Zurich in 1996. He later lived in London, Los Angeles, and Berlin before moving to New York;[5] in Berlin and New York, he shared studios with fellow artist Rudolf Stingel for a while.[6]

Work

Fischer's subversive approach to art is often considered to be influenced by anti-art movements like Neo-Dada, Lost Art, or the Situationist International.[7] Since Fischer began showing his work, in the mid-nineteen-nineties, in Europe, he has produced an enormous number of objects, drawings, collages, and room-size installations.[8]

In Untitled (Bread House) (2004-2005), Fischer constructed a Swiss style chalet out of loaves of bread. His Bad Timing, Lamb Chop! (2004-2005), displays a giant wooden chair straddling a half empty packet of cigarettes. Between 2005 and 2006, he created Untitled (Lamp/Bear), an edition of three 23-foot-tall, 20-ton, bronze bears (two are yellow, the third is blue) intersected with generic functional lamps that appear to spring out of their heads;[9] in 2011, one of the pieces was displayed for five months at Seagram Building's plaza before being auctioned at Christie's.[10] For his 2007 show at Gavin Brown’s enterprise in New York, Fischer excavated the gallery’s main room, bringing in contractors to dig an eight-foot hole where the floor had been, and calling the result You.[11] In Death of a Moment (2007), two entire walls are equipped with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and set in motion by a hydraulic system, to create the surreal effect of a room in flux, morphing in shape and size.[12]

Fischer has his own publishing imprint, Kiito-San, whose books are distributed by DAP [13] and Buchhandlung Walther König. His Work Thinking about Akbar, 2005, is by Museo Cantonale d'Arte of Lugano.[14]

Fischer’s current studio occupies a large warehouse in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, near the waterfront.[15]

Exhibitions

Fischer’s installations and sculptures have been exhibited in some group exhibitions and biennales worldwide, including Manifesta 3[16] and the Venice Biennale in 2003, 2007, and 2011.[17] His solo exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 2004, titled "Kir Royal," was his first large-scale solo museum exhibition.[18] Recent major exhibitions include "Not My House Not My Fire," Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004); "Mary Poppins," Blaffer Gallery, Art Museum of the University of Houston, Houston, Texas (2006); "Urs Fischer: Marguerite de Ponty," New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2009–10);[19] "Skinny Sunrise", Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2012);[20] "Madame Fisscher," Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2012); "Urs Fischer," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2013); and "YES," Deste Foundation Project Space, Hydra, Greece (2013).[21]

Art market

Fischer has been represented by Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zurich since 1998. In addition, he has been working with Sadie Coles HQ, in London, and Gavin Brown's Enterprise, in New York, since 2003.[22] Fischer has also worked with Gagosian Gallery since 2012.[23]

Personal life

Fischer has been married to Tara Subkoff since 2014;[24] they live in SoHo, Manhattan.[25] With the artist Cassandra MacLeod, he has a daughter.[26] He had previously been married between 1998 and 2003.[27]

References

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  2. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
  3. Urs Fischer, Untitled (Lamp/Bear) (2005-2006) Christie's, New York.
  4. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
  5. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
  6. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
  7. Urs Fischer: Skinny Sunrise. Exhibition catalog. Kunsthalle Wien 2002.
  8. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
  9. Urs Fischer, Untitled (Lamp/Bear) (2005-2006) Christie's, New York.
  10. Sarah Douglas Christie’s Bullish on Urs Fischer’s Bear New York Observer.
  11. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
  12. Urs Fischer: 'Douglas Sirk', Sadie Coles HQ, London, 06/10—11/12/2010 The Modern Institute, Glasgow.
  13. http://www.artbook.com/kiito-san.html
  14. Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano: Urs Fischer
  15. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
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  18. URS FISCHER: Agnes Martin, December 15, 2007 – January 20, 2008 Regen Projects, Los Angeles.
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  20. Urs Fischer: schmutz schmutz, April 5 - May 26, 2012 Gagosian Gallery, Paris.
  21. Urs Fischer: mermaid / pig / bro w/ hat, April 3 - May 23, 2014 Gagosian Gallery, New York.
  22. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.
  23. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. Carl Swanson (November 16, 2015), Can Art School’s Cool Kids Grow Up to Be Anti-Bullying Activists? New York Magazine.
  25. Carl Swanson (November 16, 2015), Can Art School’s Cool Kids Grow Up to Be Anti-Bullying Activists? New York Magazine.
  26. Lynn Hirschberg (November 19, 2015), The Art of Being Tara Subkoff W.
  27. Calvin Tomkins (October 19, 2009), The Imperfectionist - Urs Fischer’s inspired sloppiness The New Yorker.

Bibliography

  • Adam McEwen, Urs Fischer: Beds and Problem Paintings (New York: Rizzoli), 2012
  • Caroline Bourgeois, Patricia Falguières, Michele Robecchi, Urs Fischer: Madame Fisscher (New York: Kiito-San), 2012
  • Bice Curiger, Massimiliano Gioni, Jessica Morgan, Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole (Zurich: JRP Ringier), 2009
  • Garrick Jones, Brice Marden, Beatrix Ruf, Urs Fischer: Good Small Make-Up Tree (Zurich: JRP Ringier), 2005
  • Bruce Hainley, Jörg Heiser, Mirjam Varadinis, Urs Fischer: Kir Royal (Zurich: JRP Ringier), 2005