220504 gold flesh221127 not yet titled220504 not yet titled221031 de Kooning220104 King Kong220108 Night Sideways211230 Processing211012 Day Greys And Golds On A Fuse Box220405 not yet titledPortal, 211031, 20000×23600px221127 not yet titled211118 Fountain210701 Our Progress, 14400×19200px, 60×80″ / 1524×2032㎜ print221205 not yet titledLandscape, 210104, a unique 72×58 inch matte print210813 Tailwind, 10392×8000px, 62⅓×48″ / 1584×1220㎜ print211102 Red River, 18000×32000px211020210708 Theseus, 14400×14400px, 48×48″ / 1219×1219㎜ print201201 Gogh Geyser, 9232×7436px, 30¾×24¾″ / 782×630㎜ print91154813659867560354788671798298512990835301541325329355421937633626941796610403960956038122238609122238609 2949768457414362123149216744265732676103816836586732749_2 The light was a symphony a dance of colors and shadows that played across the landscape586732749_3 The light was a symphony a dance of colors and shadows that played across the landscape586732749_4 The light was a symphony a dance of colors and shadows that played across the landscape586732749 The light was a symphony a dance of colors and shadows that played across the landscape9243253742 The darkness was a living thing a pulsing breathing entity that seemed to be closing in on them924325374 The darkness was a living thing a pulsing breathing entity that seemed to be closing in on them710511442486691673596993871811439082 3542694168 29450161901731576217315762274857483748252656336144234174442710591057133671025235157569203515756920284011927050584540975743101112889732356567688150584540924364995177370536182022_07_28_20_55_562022_07_28_20_59_472022_07_28_20_57_192022_08_05_22_59_592022_08_05_23_00_032022_08_05_23_00_082022_08_05_23_01_152022_08_05_23_01_202022_08_05_23_04_12
A curated exhibition at the NAMARA Projects space, selected from across several bodies of work and informed by the following tenets:
[ⅰ] Practice here involves a persistent discovery and wielding of new creative tools, strategies, and ideas. [ⅱ] An aim to reveal the hybrid and fluid nature of things. [ⅲ] This body is mine but I am not my body. [ⅳ] Art is an unlikely extension of nature. [ⅴ] Assistance as a partnership. [ⅵ] Perspectivism reigns.
Art Show, NAMARA ProjectsArt Show, NAMARA ProjectsArt Show, NAMARA ProjectsArt Show, NAMARA ProjectsArt Show, NAMARA ProjectsArt Show, NAMARA ProjectsArt Show, NAMARA ProjectsArt Show, NAMARA ProjectsAs The Sea Curves, 180310, 5250×4200px, 35×28″ / 890×712㎜ printHomo Deus, 2022-171224, a unique 87×58 inch matte gicleé on aluminumDive, 22022-220811, a unique 72×58 inch matte gicleé on aluminumBlue Lei, 2022-150913, a unique 19×15 inch matte gicleéTropical Toll, 220823, a unique 9×12 inch matte gicleéuntitled, 2022-191219, a unique 72⅞×58⅜ inch print on Slickrock Metallic Pearl on aluminumDaisy Chain, 2022-220202, a unique 28×41½ inch matte gicleé on aluminumM, 2022-140829, a unique 28×22½ inch matte gicleé on aluminumuntitled, 220201-180902, a unique 32×44 inch matte gicleé on aluminumCoronas, 2022-200309, a unique 32×40inch matte gicleé on aluminumSummer Fleece, 2022-141014, a unique 28×22½ inch matte gicleé with oil pastel, on aluminumBeside Two Hemispheres Called A Brain, 2022, a unique 11×8½ inch glossy gicleé with oil pastel
Giving Entry is an exhibition of works by artists who employ flowers or floral motifs in considerations of social, philosophical, and political subjects. What matters most is the embeddedness of these blooms in their particular stories. Within this exhibition, flowers are put to work symbolically in varied artistic inquiries. Counting among them are built narratives around equality and difference; history, memory, and temporality; environment and climate; speculation and the supernatural.
Pale Rythem, 2022—170401, 22½×18 inch matte giclée on aluminumPale Rythem, 170401, 15000×12000px, 50×40″ / 1270×1016㎜ printCasting a Wide Net, 2022—180515, a unique 60×40 inch matte giclée on aluminumCasting A Wide Net, 180515, 22000×14666px, 90×60″ / 2290×1527㎜ print220712-NAMARA-Projects_Giving-Entry_70220712-NAMARA-Projects_Giving-Entry_76-Alex-Fischer-Casting-a-Wide-Net
break
2023—2018Canada Goose Collection
Story Tree, 200901, ≅15'×15'∅ water cut aluminium, acrylic paint, pine base with steel counterweight. In collaboration with Qavavau Manumie. Installed at Yorkdale Mall, Canada. Feature Page on NAMARA.ᐃᒻᒪᕕᒻᒥ Upon the Sea 海上, 201120, ≅15'×15' water cut aluminium, white paint. In collaboration with Qavavau Manumie. Installed at iAPM, Shanghai, China. Feature Page on NAMARA.Sender, 200821, 60×40 inch matte gicleé on aluminumTotem Path, 211031, 120×180″ matte printProscenium, 190725, 31680×13200px, 144×60″ / 3658×1524㎜ print.
Proscenium was commissioned in response to an adjacent Manumie glass work. With its vertical orientation inspired by 14th-Century Milanese painter Bernardino Luini the piece is here sectioned into vertical tiers, and references both tree lined urban districts and an expansive and varied natural landscape. The scene unfolds upwards from its rippled marbled foreground through shores and onto aerial views of coastal cities and mountain ranges —painted with a historical Canadian landscape aesthetic.Tonight And Day (Summer), 180715, 20056×23544px, 92×108″ / 2337×2743㎜ print. Installed at Canada Goose IFC Mall Hong Kong.Tonight And Day (Winter), 180715, 20056×23544px, 92×108″ / 2337×2743㎜ printTotem For A Future, 180715, 20000×20000px, 82×82″ / 2082×2082㎜ print
break
2022—2017Fluid
210516 Garden, 48×96″ acryic and oil on canvas211011 Bending over Backwards, 60×48″ / 1524×1220㎜ oil and scrylic on wood200528 Studio Waves, 40000×30000px, 80×60″ / 2036×1530㎜ printHomo Deus, 171224, 21600×17279px, 75×60″ / 1910×1524㎜ print201214 Dive, 25777×32000px, 60×74¾″ / 1530×1892㎜ printBrown Lemon, 140825, 9948×7958px, 16×12″ / 407×326㎜ printThose Red Feelings, 180130, 20000×16000px, 18×14″ / 474×379㎜ printForage Through Absurdity With No Great Certainty To Find Paradise Is Other People, 171130, 40×30″ / 1024×768mm painting
break
2021—2006Chrome
211111 Sour Easter BW, 15756×12363pxDisc, 130829, a unique 98×48 inch exposure on fujiflex on aluminumWeekend Painting, 190126, 20000×16000px, 40×32″ / 1016×813㎜ printSafarti's Walk, 2009, 7200×7200px, 17×17″ / 433×433㎜ printBetween You and Me, 171130, 5464×4371, 18×14″ / 463×370㎜ printBetween Steps, 171130, 20000×16000px, 14×11″ / 355×279㎜ printDay Outside, 160129, 20000×16000px, 30×24″ / 763×610㎜ printNight Outside, 160129, 20000×16000px, 30×24″ / 763×610㎜ printOn Wire, 191202, 22031×40056px, 85×156″ / 2180×3969㎜ printOn Cotton, 120918, 21344×16008px, 64×48″ / 1628×1221㎜ printJupiter Island, 060314, a unique 34×26 inch matte printMados, 060307, a unique 36×24 inch matte gicleé
break
2021 09Green Knight
210921 The Green Knight, 32000×19213px210922 The Green Knight, 32000×19213px210923 The Green Knight, 32000×19213pxLemon Keeper, 171130, 12075×16100px, 19×25″ / 483×635㎜ print
Curated by Veronika Ivanova, “Bending Towards the Sun” is a fundraising exhibition in support of YYZ. “Bending Towards the Sun” celebrates YYZ Artists’ Outlet—their growth and transformation over the past 40 years, and their resilience and ability to thrive in a climate increasingly hostile to cultural work.
Bending Towards the Sun, installBending Towards the Sun, installBending Towards the Sun, installBending Towards the Sun, installSuper Seed B&WBLUE, 160829, 14×11″ / 356×280㎜ printBending Towards the Sun, install
The fifteen RBC Canadian Painting Competition finalists are selected by a distinguished jury from the Canadian art community to represent the emerging voices that explore, challenge, and embrace the nature of the medium.
Pet, Casper and Hesperie, 160622, 48×54″ / 1219×1371mm paint on canvasRBC Painting Competition, Art Toronto 2016RBC Painting Competition, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada 2016
break
2016 09, Trace • Copy • Render, Circuit Gallery @ Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto. Curated by Claire Sykes.
Circuit Gallery is pleased to present Trace • Copy • Render, an exhibition featuring new work by Alex Fischer, Rita Maas, Susana Reisman, and Sharon Switzer.
This exhibition brings together four artists who are thinking about origins, process, materials, and labour as they explore the possibilities and implications of working digitally.
At the heart of Trace • Copy • Render is a shared interest in revealing, hiding, and playing with digital and material processes and manipulations, and the coincidence or disconnect (as the case may be) between final output and the myriad steps involved in the process of its realization.
Alex Fischer is an artist whose practice deliberately blurs and confounds the borders between media, and constitutes digital-image making as an extension of traditional artistic media and concerns. He uses advanced digital imaging techniques to manipulate found source imagery, to layer and build-up complex new compositions that are often hard to pin down as to medium or process, and which maintain a tension between the physical and the virtual, the original and the copy, the index and the trace.
In a fascinating inversion of his work on the computer, Fischer just as easily jumps out from the digital realm—off the virtual canvas—and performs ‘photoshop’ by physically copying, tracing, blending, adding layers and various effects to printed and painted works. Fischer’s series of work in Trace • Copy • Render offers a self-reflexive glimpse into his process of creation and concerns and includes paintings, projections, and prints.
The myth of Malinche tells of a world ended and of a woman caught between two cultures, translating the words of conquerors and the conquered. As a symbol of colonization and cultural subjugation, she represents the loss of an indigenous way of life and the assimilation to the colonizers' language and values. The myth speaks to the pain of a world lost and the struggle to understand and survive in a new reality.
2015 021, 7, and 6000, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto
(1) On the occasion of Alex Fischer's fourth solo exhibition with O'Born Contemporary, he problematizes the "single image" by its very conversion into multiple, nearly identical forms. A digital original is here reproduced as 1 digital print, 7 large oil paintings, and 6000 small acrylic paintings. Through this multi-modal exhibition, Fischer deliberates on the nature of art with its value systems and capitalist patrimony.
Current agricultural trends demonstrate that when tomatoes are grown, the aim is to direct natural processes, taking agency over evolution. Like all biological species, the tomato plant contains a genetic copy of itself inside every cell of its being. Repetition and versioning are as much a rule in agriculture as they are in human life. Conversely, uniqueness and independence of mind are selling points when it comes to art. There is an established value in originality.1.
(7) Each of the 7 oil paintings was completed by an equal number of painters working in Xiamen, China. Fischer puts the work of these trained hands in direct visual argument with the mechanically reproduced print: he suggests deliberation about the capitalist mechanism and simultaneously entertains his moral ambiguity within this landscape of unapologetic consumptive socio-culture.
The controversy here may be in the fact that Fischer criticizes the capitalist system by highlighting elements that are uncomfortable to acknowledge while fully engaging with capitalism's ideologies through the kaleidoscope of fine art and its market. He grows the pieces, puts them under optimal lighting, and creates versions at price points to invite the viewer to buy.
(6000) An arched shelf bolsters 6000 small sheets of thin, transparent plastic. Hundreds have already been painted, revealing that they exist as an assemblage of tiles that, when properly arranged, mimic their parent image. Fischer will paint the remaining sheets on demand as they are requested and will continue this practice alongside his other projects.
Artwork as a commodity is not valuable per se– its value is the result of an ongoing and never ending social negotiation. That being said, the work of art, and painting specifically, is an object that bears a concrete, almost measurable evidence of labour on its surface.2. Paintings are worked over and leave a trace of the individual mark maker. Each edition in 1, 7, and 6000 shows on its surface the inevitable difference made during translation between parent image and end product. Each image is the real thing.
1. This idea is commensurate with remarks issued by Ben Davis: It is the "uniquely middle-class nature of creative labor in the visual arts [that] would seem to explain its alternative emphasis on the individual, that is, on the virtues of personality and small production, as well as a whole host of other stylistic tics and affectations(...) visual art's characteristic questioning or ironic attitude; the value of the artist's signature and the "artist's statement" that are associated with it." Davis, Ben. 9.5 Theses on Art and Class - Commerce and Consciousness. Chicago:Haymarket Books, 2013. PDF file.
2. Graw, Isabelle. Thinking through Painting - Reflexivity and Agency beyond the Canvas. Sternberg Press, 2012. Page 56.
1, 7, and 6000, in-situ at O'Born ContemporaryVII, 2015, 60×48″ print install, 1, 7, and 6000, O'Born Contemporary1, 7, and 6000, four of seven oil reproductions1, 7, and 6000, three of seven oil reproductions1, 7, and 6000VII 6000 Arch, 2015, A 82×48×40in acrylic and aluminium arch bolstering two hundred and forty 6×4in painted sheets1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 6000 Arch in-situ detail1, 7, and 6000 acrylic panels #64, 651, 7, and 6000 6000 panels mockup1, 7, and 6000 6000 panels mockup1, 7, and 6000 6000 panels mockup1, 7, and 6000 in-situ at O'Born Contemporary1, 7, and 6000 in-situ at O'Born Contemporary1, 7, and 6000 in-situ at O'Born Contemporary1, 7, and 6000 in-situ vii 陈文波 evening1, 7, and 6000 concept sketch1, 7, and 6000 concept sketch1, 7, and 6000 concept sketch1, 7, and 6000 concept sketch1, 7, and 6000 in-situ mockupeach 60×48″ oil on canvas Left to Right: VII 江明 Jiang Ming, VII 林建 Lin Jian, VII 陈⽂文波 Chen Wen Bo, VII 陈秋林 Chen Qiu Lin, VII 冯声贵 Feng Shui Gui, VII 叶安 Ye An, VII 陈⼭山 Chen Shan) all 2015VII, 2015, 10000×8000px, 60×48″ printVII 冯声贵 Feng Shui Gui, 2015, 60×48″ oil on canvasVII 叶安 Ye An, 2015, 60×48″ oil on canvasVII 林建 Lin Jian, 2015, 60×48″ oil on canvasVII 江明 Jiang Ming, 2015, 60×48″ oil on canvasVII 陈山 Chen Shan, 2015, 60×48″ oil on canvasVII 陈文波 Chen Wen Bo, 2015, 60×48″ oil on canvasVII 陈秋林 Chen Qiu Lin, 2015, 60×48″ oil on canvasVII A1 acrylic on acrylicVII A2 acrylic on acrylicVII A3 acrylic on acrylicVII A4 acrylic on acrylicVII A5 acrylic on acrylicVII A6 acrylic on acrylicVII A7 acrylic on acrylicVII A8 acrylic on acrylicVII A9 acrylic on acrylicVII A10 acrylic on acrylicVII A11 acrylic on acrylicVII A12 acrylic on acrylicVII B1 acrylic on acrylicVII B2 acrylic on acrylicVII B3 acrylic on acrylicVII B4 acrylic on acrylicVII B5 acrylic on acrylicVII B6 acrylic on acrylicVII B7 acrylic on acrylicVII B8 acrylic on acrylicVII B9 acrylic on acrylicVII B10 acrylic on acrylicVII B11 acrylic on acrylicVII B12 acrylic on acrylicVII C1 acrylic on acrylicVII C2 acrylic on acrylicVII C3 acrylic on acrylicVII C4 acrylic on acrylicVII C5 acrylic on acrylicVII C6 acrylic on acrylicVII C7 acrylic on acrylicVII C8 acrylic on acrylicVII C9 acrylic on acrylicVII C10 acrylic on acrylicVII C11 acrylic on acrylicVII C12 acrylic on acrylicVII D1 acrylic on acrylicVII D2 acrylic on acrylicVII D3 acrylic on acrylicVII D4 acrylic on acrylicVII D5 acrylic on acrylicVII D6 acrylic on acrylicVII D7 acrylic on acrylicVII D8 acrylic on acrylicVII D9 acrylic on acrylicVII D10 acrylic on acrylicVII D11 acrylic on acrylicVII D12 acrylic on acrylicVII E1 acrylic on acrylicVII E2 acrylic on acrylicVII E3 acrylic on acrylicVII E4 acrylic on acrylicVII E5 acrylic on acrylicVII E6 acrylic on acrylicVII E7 acrylic on acrylicVII E8 acrylic on acrylicVII E9 acrylic on acrylicVII E10 acrylic on acrylicVII E11 acrylic on acrylicVII E12 acrylic on acrylicVII F1 acrylic on acrylicVII F2 acrylic on acrylicVII F3 acrylic on acrylicVII F4 acrylic on acrylicVII F5 acrylic on acrylicVII F6 acrylic on acrylicVII F7 acrylic on acrylicVII F8 acrylic on acrylicVII F9 acrylic on acrylicVII F10 acrylic on acrylicVII F11 acrylic on acrylicVII F12 acrylic on acrylicVII G1 acrylic on acrylicVII G2 acrylic on acrylicVII G3 acrylic on acrylicVII G4 acrylic on acrylicVII G5 acrylic on acrylicVII G6 acrylic on acrylicVII G7 acrylic on acrylicVII G8 acrylic on acrylicVII G9 acrylic on acrylicVII G10 acrylic on acrylicVII G11 acrylic on acrylicVII G12 acrylic on acrylicVII H1 acrylic on acrylicVII H2 acrylic on acrylicVII H3 acrylic on acrylicVII H4 acrylic on acrylicVII H5 acrylic on acrylicVII H6 acrylic on acrylicVII H7 acrylic on acrylicVII H8 acrylic on acrylicVII H9 acrylic on acrylicVII H10 acrylic on acrylicVII H11 acrylic on acrylicVII H12 acrylic on acrylicVII I1 acrylic on acrylicVII I2 acrylic on acrylicVII I3 acrylic on acrylicVII I4 acrylic on acrylicVII I5 acrylic on acrylicVII I6 acrylic on acrylicVII I7 acrylic on acrylicVII I8 acrylic on acrylicVII I9 acrylic on acrylicVII I10 acrylic on acrylicVII I11 acrylic on acrylicVII I12 acrylic on acrylicVII J1 acrylic on acrylicVII J2 acrylic on acrylicVII J3 acrylic on acrylicVII J4 acrylic on acrylicVII J5 acrylic on acrylicVII J6 acrylic on acrylicVII J7 acrylic on acrylicVII J8 acrylic on acrylicVII J9 acrylic on acrylicVII J10 acrylic on acrylicVII J11 acrylic on acrylicVII J12 acrylic on acrylic
break
2017—2010Figures in a Landscape
Big Blue, 120807, 9000×16000px, 20×36″ / 515×915㎜ print(Feather Feeder, 130127), (There in the bottom of the pit sits Theseus and will ever sit (Night and Day), 180719)Inside The Faberge Egg, 140308, 20000×16000px, 60×48″ / 1525×1220㎜ printGarden Spell, 140313, 16000×16000px, 17×17″ / 433×433㎜ printReal Safe Myth, 110608, 18108×16000px, 48×42″ / 1220×1078㎜ printStraw Man, 110222, 21600×40500px, 96×180″ / 2438×4572㎜ printArtists Image, 111017, 2835×2079px, 11¾×8⅝″″ / 300×220㎜ printAurora, 110504, 4200px×4200px, 12×12⅗″ / 305×320㎜ printMarkered Market, 131022, 7010×11100px, 18×28″ / 458×725㎜ printLoop Santiago, 130520, 12040×9632px, 43×34″ / 1092×874㎜ printbow, 111019, 8364×10677px, 18×23″ / 470×600㎜ printMangrove Down, 120701, 20945×12677px, 74¾×45¼″ / 1900×1150㎜ printBanks See Banana Man, 171130, 11146×7479px, 90×60″ / 2286×1524㎜ printFrankenstein's Real, 171130, 25200×18000px, 84×60″ / 2134×1524㎜ printDer Hirte, 171130, 20000×16000px, 75×60″ / 1910×1528㎜ printIn a Dream about a Ghost, 160505, 17320×13855px, 72×57½″ / 1833×1466㎜ printLet Me Play You My Burning Concerns, 171130, 5830×4664px, 26×21″ / 673×539㎜ printSaturnine Clock, 140203, 18831×15064px, 75×60″ / 1913×1530㎜ printBlood Bowl, 110609, 20000×16000px, 48×38″ / 1221×977㎜ printBlackfoot, 110511, 22000×13406px, 32×19″ / 813×496㎜ printBeyond The Fall, 111105, 9907×14720px, 43×64″ / 1094×1626㎜ printPlans For A Home, 2010, 7200×6177px, 24×20½″ / 610×523㎜ printArtists Retreat, 2010, 17376×1600px, 48×44″ / 1219×1123㎜ printBeach House, 2010, 3156×1900px, 15×9″ / 382×230㎜ printBring Home The Bacon, 2010, 12000×16000px, 36×48″ / 915×122㎜ printFigure Head, 2010, 13200×13680px, 57×55″ / 1397×1368㎜ printCooks Cape, 2010, 15000×21000px, 60×84″ / 1524×2134㎜ printThree Fates, 2010, 16421×25200px, 60×92″ / 1629×2500㎜ printThe Invisible Man Returns, 2010, 11486×7680px, 47⅞×32″ / 1216×813㎜ printTrouble On Volcano Sundae, 2010, 17376×1600px, 48×44″ / 1219×1123㎜ printUntitled Greens, 2010, 4500×6000px, 15×20″ / 381×508㎜ printIsland, 110222, 7200×14400px, 48×24″ / 610×1219㎜ printGround, 2010, 18000×25200px, 60×84″ / 1524×2134㎜ printSalt Lake Schulnik, 2010, 3936×3600px, 16×15″ / 417×381㎜ printBody Of Eris, 2010, 74×48×18″ mixed media sculptureGrandfather Wreath, 2010, mixed media sculptureSpider From Venus, 2010
break
2015 05The Collective, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto
A survey of the collected artists exhibited at O'Born Contemporary.
The Collective, in-situ "Seeding", "Mangrove Down", "Feather Feeder"The Collective, in-situ with Jill GreenbergThe Collective, in-situ with John MonteithSeeding, 120608, 21×14″ / 534×356㎜ printMangrove Down, 120701, 74¾×45¼″ / 1900×1150㎜ printFeather Feeder, 130127, 36×42″ / 925×1067㎜ printA General Impression, 130513, 11×8½″ / 279×216㎜ print
ANGELL GALLERY is pleased to present SIMULATORS II, an exhibition of new digital art featuring nine artists — Napoleon Brousseau, Mitchell F. Chan, Alex Fischer, Francoise Gamma, Brenna Murphy, Aamna Muzaffar, Rafael Ochoa, Geoffrey Pugen and Tobias Williams. The exhibition is up in the east and west galleries from February 21 to March 22, 2014. A related exhibition by Philippe Blanchard will run concurrently in the Project Room.
In recent critical discussion, the phrase Post-Internet art has surfaced to replace the term New Media, reflecting the now ubiquitous nature of digital technology. Now that the Internet has shifted from novelty to normalcy, Post-Internet artists are focusing less on the means and more on the ends, creating work that couples virtual reality with a strong material presence. The art world’s embrace of this new phase was signaled by the first auction dedicated exclusively to digital art, staged by renowned auction house, Phillips, in October of 2013. Angell Gallery has been at the forefront of promoting this new wave of digital practice, and in SIMULATORS II the gallery showcases artists who represent the exciting diversity of this rapidly expanding field.
[...]
Alex Fischer, a self-styled “sociologist of internet culture”, combs the web for diverse images drawn from art, science and technology. These he twists and turns, mows and mulches, to produce brand new entities in the forms of digital paintings and sculptures that tease us with hints at narrative possibilities while straddling the borders of abstraction. [...]
Simulators II, Angell Gallery, with Tobias Williams and Rafael OchoaSimulators II, installSimulators II, installSimulators II, installIs Water, 130611, 24¼×40¾″ / 603×1016㎜ printSimilar Object (b), 2013, 15¾×47¼ / 400×1200mm screenprint on mirror
break
2013 03Translation, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto, Curated by Rachel Anne Farquharson
A translation can be many things: It can be a conversion or transformation from one physical form to another, it can be a progression in biological stage, and it can even be, in the most geometric of terms, the movement of a shape along an axis. Within art's pedagogical premise, the most apt definition for translation might be the rendering of something into one's own language, semiotically or aesthetically. Viewed through this lens, geographies that are foreign, ideologies that are suspect, and modes of technology to which we find ourselves unwittingly beholden need a level plane upon which to exist in globalized society. The arrow of understanding, as Translation permits, rarely points in one direction, however. The exhibition provides recourse to how translations can also abet the fetishization of objects, enabling simple acts to suddenly become estranged.
Each artist in Translation confronts the banal, at once making it pliable to our understanding and relocating it in the realm of the monumental through inherently indexical material. Alex Fischer reappropriates digital imagery culled from today's archival internet abyss, exacting the terror of the sublime through an exposition of our dissolved communion with nature. As the artist's high-resolution content surpasses any interface capable of displaying the work in its "natural state", it is revealed that human vision has entered into stalemate with contemporary pixel acuity and printing technology.
In conversation, the artists in this exhibition aim to translate aspects of life, either by material or digital processes. Transformed in these ways, the landscapes of social, psychic, cultural, physical and political content breach the boundaries of ordinary experience, inciting their audience to new personal and collective understanding.
Alex Fischer's latest body of work counter-poses the primordial origins of biology against today's dominant technology-based vernacular. In earnest, the artist acknowledges through his practice elements peculiar to the time of his being. Put in alternative terms, Fischer concedes that the acts of being and becoming are wholly different now than at any time in our recent or distant past.
Dry Pixels and Wet Molecules poses a valuable and contemporary question using sensory terms--can the digital reconcile with the physical? The works of art comprising this materially varied exhibition reveal themselves as both answers to and instigators of this question. Through digital manipulations, sculpture, and installation, Fischer convinces his audience that technology is not simply an imbricate to the physical and the palpable but rather supersedes both.
The multi-modal moment in which art-making has found itself produces what could be called "moist media", a curious but worthwhile corollary to the McLuhan's "cold media" of days past. Absorbing this idea, Fischer wedges himself between the dry, cold of the pixel and the wetness of biomolecules. Ultimately suggesting that we are living in a post-digital world, the artist exposes a tactility and precision with his imagery that in effect surpasses the daily surroundings we perceive with our own eyes and bodies.
Dry Pixels and Wet Molecules, in-situ at O'Born ContemporaryDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, installDry Pixels and Wet Molecules, install
break
2013 09Guest Room, p|m gallery, Toronto
An extensive group show and fundrasier for ArtBarrage
ANGELL GALLERY is pleased to present SIMULATORS, an exhibition showcasing new work by eight artists who are at the forefront of contemporary digital art practices —
Philippe Blanchard,
David Clarkson,
Alex Fischer,
Brianna Lowe,
Alex McLeod,
Rafael Ochoa,
Jon Rafman and
Jillian Ross. The exhibition is on throughout the gallery from November 3 to December 1, 2012. An opening reception will be held on November 3, 1:00 – 4:00 PM. Digital technology has created a revolution in the art world, spawning the first new medium to arise since the birth of the artists' videos in the 1960s. Encompassing an astonishingly wide range of approaches, digital art is now exhibited and collected by major museums, and is sought after by collectors worldwide. Angell Gallery has been a leader in promoting digital art practices, and the artists in Simulators demonstrate the varied possibilities of this new medium, which as a creative tool is both demanding and limitless. Using software with the dexterity with which painters traditionally wielded the brush, the artists in Simulators create digital paintings, videos and animations that intrigue, inspire and engage. The featured artists are each recognized for their unique contributions to this developing medium.
[...]
Alex Fischer reconfigures art world images sampled from the web to construct richly layered, painterly landscape and figural compositions that belie the means of their creation. Ranging from Romantic solitary wanderers to composite faces that suggest a cyber-age Bosch, Fischer's expressive mash-ups are held together by his canny sense of colour and composition. The Toronto-based Fischer graduated from York University with a BFA in Visual Arts, and is represented in noted collections. His work has been featured in Black/Flash, Beautiful/Decay and The Walrus, among others.
2012 05Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC (Bigué Art Contemporain)
Galerie BAC, Bigué Art Contemporain est heureuse de vous présenter la 1ère exposition solo Montréalaise de l’artiste Torontois, Alex Fischer. Cette exposition intitulée « Beyond the Fall » sera présentée du 9 au 26 mai 2012.
Alex Fischer offre une vue humaine sur des scènes futuristes; une vue qui explore des idéologies et des projections sur une société ayant un regard sur l’art contemporain.
Composant ses personnages et ses paysages avec un assemblage de visuel photographique, Fischer garde toujours en tête que l’idée du futur est inévitable auprès des gens et il maintient, dans ses images, la faiblesse et la susceptibilité de notre état.
Les sujets et personnages de ses œuvres sont une réflexion de syncrétisme. Leur identité extérieur est imposé, ils sont hétérogène, mêlé à un environnement non-conscient mais toutefois, les sujets peuvent être vue vivant dans un monde post-structural par le voyeur.
Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012Beyond The Fall, Galerie BAC, Montréal 2012
Artists must take responsibility for representing the time in which they live.
The images of Beyond The Fall come from what has become the predominant first-world interface: The personal computer and internet capable device is now the primary filter by which broad swaths of people interact and know themselves. These technologies have the ability to snake our attentions, beliefs and desires, influencing cognition and our experience of the world.
In order to represent these paradigm shifts, Alex Fischer reifies the low-culture of individualistic habits and persuasions to be in dialogue with the ripe philosophy of high art. His chosen medium of digital collage perfectly compliments his artistic process, by which he paints together images from a collection of digital sources. Each piece concedes to multiple interpretations due to Fischer's choice to obscure the visual space of the image into near abstraction. The narratives encompass characters, scenes, and symbols with all of their ambiguity, insight, and metaphysical baggage on display. The content originates from their adaptations to and the impact of this current age.
Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012Beyond The Fall, O'Born Contemporary, Toronto 2012
Smarter Today offers a human view of futurist landscapes, a view that explores the ideologies and projections of society through the lens of contemporary art.
Alex Fischer composes his figures and landscapes by assembling a variety of visual and conceptual sources. Keeping in mind that ideas of the future are inevitably the fastest to change, Fischer maintains that human nature is a fallible and susceptible state.
Technological advancement and machine generations have vastly outpaced the tradition of the average human life. As a society, we have adapted to accept the pace at which vast differences and contrasts will influence our modes of being. All projections of which are unpredictable beyond our present context. Today more than ever before, we situate ourselves less as individuals and more as the product of multiple networks. While this network theory suggests a node's relationship to other networks is more important than its own uniqueness, we find a backlash of reflection on individual circumstance and identity.
The subjects and characters of Smarter Today are reflections on the syncretism that created them. Their exterior identities have been extricated to include all of their precursors. They are heterogeneous and intermingled with their environments, yet maintain their subjectivity in the face of a post-structuralist world.
Smarter Today is Fischer's debut solo exhibition with O'Born Contemporary.
131 brings together this diverse group of artists to inaugurate our new space, to introduce our new curatorial team and foremost, to announce our broadened approach to medium-specific programming.
O'Born Contemporary was established as a gallery, exhibiting contemporary photographic and lens-based works by living artists. This shall be maintained in our new space with the addition of works of all mediums, conceptually or practically linked to photography or its history.
The artists that represent us are photographers, journalists, documentarians, painters, sculptors, builders and thinkers; they do not necessarily commit themselves to a single mode of expression but all contribute to the ongoing dialogue of photography's place in contemporary art practices.
[...]
Alex Fischer's work is fodder for discourse on digital image-making. His work is heavily layered, both theoretically and visually, challenging notions of appropriation and ownership. Through reference to work of practicing artists and subsequent abstraction thereof, Fischer creates a rich and elegant aestheticization of contemporary art history in social media. [...]
Alex Fischer, The Spoke Club, Toronto, 2009Alex Fischer, The Spoke Club, Toronto, 2009Alex Fischer, The Spoke Club, Toronto, 2009Alex Fischer, The Spoke Club, Toronto, 2009Alex Fischer, The Spoke Club, Toronto, 2009
break
2009 02This is not a bout, Special Projcts Gallery, Toronto
This is not a bout, Special Projcts Gallery, York University, Toronto 2009This is not a bout, Special Projcts Gallery, York University, Toronto 2009This is not a bout, Special Projcts Gallery, York University, Toronto 2009This is not a bout, Special Projcts Gallery, York University, Toronto 2009
break
2009 02Backwater Resolution, The Gales Gallery, Toronto
Backwater Resolution, The Gales Gallery, Toronto, 2009Backwater Resolution, The Gales Gallery, Toronto, 2009
break
2008 12Facing The Screen, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto
Facing the Screen investigates the complex relationship that exists between painting and digital technologies. This public event is associated with the ongoing art lounge exhibition that will function as its physical and conceptual background. We welcome four important Canadian painters who are also faculty members in the fine arts programs at universities in the Toronto area.
Facing The Screen, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, Canada 2009Facing The Screen, University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto, Canada 2009
break
2008 04Peinture fraîche / Fresh Paint, Art Mur, Montréal
Peinture fraîche / Fresh Paint, Art Mur, Montréal, 2008Peinture fraîche / Fresh Paint, Art Mur, Montréal, 2008
break
2009—2001Early Abstracts
South West Esteem, 2009, 10000×15000px, 36×54″ / 917×1375㎜ printHilde-brand Graffiti, 2009, 10000×15000px, 36×54″ / 917×1375㎜ printWe'll Watch Twin Peaks, 2009, 10000×15000px, 36×54″ / 917×1375㎜ printJeff Wall Dug Me A Mountain, 2008, 10000×15000px, 36×54″ / 917×1375㎜ printSyd Mead Built Me a House, 2008My Windows Explosion Document, 2008Sunflower, 200807-we-can't-take-home-the-underbrushAlmond Fountain Tree, 2008Fallow The City Has Fields, 2008, 21312×14208px, 36×24″ / 914×610㎜ printFallow The City Has Fields, 2008 Jupiter Island, 2006Jupiter Island, 2006, 21227×16000px, 34×26″ / 877×661㎜ printWeather, 2005Gayane Ballet Suite, 2005Context, 2005Such Zero, 2004Ra pt ure, 2004∞ 1 + 2, 2004Three Trojan Horses, 2003edifice, 2003mind the cracks, 20039-sonata-notesHouse, 2001
Ideas
As an artist, I aim to create inclusive, responsive art that challenges the homogenization of style and celebrates unique, personal expressions. My work explores the intersection of contemporary art and sociological theory, offering new perspectives on the world around us. I am passionate about pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and encouraging others to engage with the complexities of the present moment. It is my hope that my art will inspire and invigorate, sparking a new appreciation for the endless possibilities of artistic creation.
Biography
Alex Fischer (b 1986) is a multidisciplinary visual artist and digital designer who creates thought-provoking and engaging works of art. Born and raised in rural Ontario, Canada, Fischer has been based in Toronto since receiving their Bachelor of Fine Arts Honors from York University in 2009. Since then, Fischer has continued to develop their skills as an artist and designer, collaborating with other artists and exhibiting their work in cities around the world.
Fischer's artistic practice is inspired by process-based makers and is guided by the principles of assisted strategies, consilience, and perspectivism. These guiding principles inform the creation of Fischer's works, which are often scalable and high-resolution, with the intention of being realized in a variety of forms. Through experimentation and exploration, Fischer seeks to discover new ways of leveraging technologies and to push the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of fine art and beyond.
Fischer's works are striking and thought-provoking, engaging the viewer with their unique aesthetic and sensitive handling of the subject matter. Whether creating public or private works, Fischer is a highly skilled artist who brings a unique vision and a deep understanding of the creative process to their work. They are an invited juror, mentor, and speaker, and have been recognized for their talent and dedication to their craft.
A heartfelt thank you to those who have helped make this possible: family, friends, techs and fabricators, as well as the generous patronage of BNY Mellon, Donald O'Born, Eqitable Bank, Leith Wheeler, Shrigley Battrick, Statoil, TD Bank Group, and The Ontario Arts Council.
thank you for visiting
感谢您访问, thank you for visiting, विज़िट करने के लिए आपका शुक्रिया, gracias portrait su visita, شكرا لكم لزيارة, terima kasih kerana melawat, Спасибо за посещение, পরিদর্শন করার জন্য আপনাকে ধন্যবাদ, obrigado portrait visitar, merci de votre visite, na gode don ziyarar, ਦਾ ਦੌਰਾ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ ਤੁਹਾਡਾ ਧੰਨਵਾਦ, danke für den besuch, お越し頂きありがとうございます, and تشکر از بازدید شما.
Commissions & Sales
Much of what is seen here exists as an original work or limited museum quality print, sometimes a scaled version or AP. Works are only available on an as quoted basis or as listed on Artsy. Certificates of authenticity and/or a physically signed object are provided with sale.