Artist
Urs Fischer mines the potential of materials — from clay, steel and paint to bread, dirt, and produce — creating works that disorient and bewilder. Through scale distortions, illusion, and the juxtaposition of common objects, his sculptures, paintings, photographs, and large-scale installations explore themes of perception and representation while maintaining a witty irreverence and mordant sense of humor.
Born in 1973 in Zurich, Urs Fischer studied photography at the Schule für Gestaltung, Zurich. He has exhibited extensively internationally, and his work is included in many important public and private collections worldwide.
Solo exhibitions include “Flea Circus,” Sadie Coles HQ, London (2023); “Denominator,” Gagosian, New York (2022); “Urs Fischer,” Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2022); “The Lyrical and the Prosaic,” Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2019); “Leo,” Gagosian, Paris (2019); “ERROR,” The Brant Foundation Arty Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut (2019); “PLAY,” (with choreography by Madeline Hollander) Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2019) and Gagosian, New York (2018); “SIRENS,” Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2019); “Images,” Gagosian, Beverly Hills (2019); “soft,” Sadie Coles HQ, London (2018); “Maybe,” The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2018); ”Gavin Brown’s Eenterprise,” Rome (2017); “Big Clay #4 and 2 Tuscan Men,” Piazza della Signoria, Florence (2017); “The Public & the Private,” Legion of Honor, San Francisco (2017); “Mon cher...,” Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles, France (2017); “Battito di Ciglia,” Massimo de Carlo, Milan (2016); “Small Axe,” Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2016); “Ursula,” JTT, New York (2016); “Urs Fischer,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2013); “Madame Fisscher,” Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2012); “Skinny Sunrise,” Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2012); “Oscar the Grouch,” The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut (2010); “Marguerite de Ponty,” New Museum, New York (2009); “Cockatoo Island,” Kaldor Public Art Project and the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, Sydney (2007); “Mary Poppins,” Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, Texas (2006); “Paris 1919,” Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2006); “Jet Set Lady,” Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan (2005); “Kir Royal,” Kunsthaus Zürich (2004); and “Not My House, Not My Fire,” Espace 315, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2004).
His work has been presented in numerous group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (2003, 2007, and 2011); “The Event Sculpture,” Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, England (2015); “Burning Down the House,” Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2014); “L’Invention de l’œuvre: Rodin et les ambassadeurs,” Musée Rodin, Paris (2011); “Modern British Sculpture,” the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2011); “Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century,” New Museum, New York (2007–2008); “Fractured Figure: Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection,” Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens (2007–2008); “Sequence 1: Painting and Sculpture in the François Pinault Collection,” Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2007); and “Cinq milliards d’années,” Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006–2007).
He believes that people seem to fear art — that art has always been a word for this thing that cannot be rationalized or explained. However, he also believes that this is its strength, and precisely what the word “art” is for.
Mr. Fischer lives and works in New York.
