Works Exhibited
About
Gagosian is pleased to present the first exhibition of Urs Fischer’s work in Rome.
Fischer’s large-scale installations and sculptures posit genres traditionally evoked in painting—portraits, landscapes, nudes, and still lifes—in a profusion of rich, often impermanent sculptural materials. Whether utilizing comestibles such as bread or fruit, or other delicate substances such as candle wax, Fischer mines the literal and metaphorical potential of materials to introduce a fourth dimension—time—into the work.
As the title suggests, in Horse / Bed (2013), a horse appears to have fully merged with a hospital bed, whose various parts envelop the animal’s head and legs. The horse stands upright, “wearing” the bed like a harness as though nothing is amiss. Digitally combined from 3-D scans of a taxidermyied workhorse and a hospital bed, and milled from shiny aluminum, the detail of the sculpture’s impressive materiality provides an overwhelming amount of information to the naked eye.
Problem Paintings—headshots, both stock and purpose-made, colored and enlarged to different scales, then obstructed by silkscreened images—propose a clash of representational systems that is both convulsive and darkly humorous. A central feature of the exhibition, the monumental Problem Painting pairs a woman and an egg, while related works Innocent Problem, Real Problem, and Sloppy Problem (all 2013) introduce other female and male archetypes, similarly obscured by eggs that are either perfectly whole or split open to expose their solid yolks.
A small vase of colorful flowers, carefully positioned in the exhibition, enlivens the room, underscoring Fischer’s ongoing explorations with scale, perception, and art’s relationship to reality.
Gagosian ha il piacere di presentare la prima mostra di Urs Fischer a Roma.
Le installazioni e le sculture su larga scala di Fischer ripropongono generi tradizionali della pittura—ritratti, paesaggi, nudi, e nature morte—con un’abbondanza di materiali scultorei complessi, e spesso instabili. Utilizzando generi commestibili, come pane e frutta, o sostanze delicate, come la cera delle candele, Fischer sfida il potenziale letterale e metaforico della materia introducendo nel suo lavoro una quarta dimensione: il tempo.
Come suggerisce il titolo, in Horse / Bed (2013) un cavallo sembra essersi fuso con un letto d’ospedale, le cui parti racchiudono la testa e le zampe dell’animale. Il cavallo, indossando il letto come un’imbracatura, si presenta eretto come se non ci fosse niente di strano. Realizzato combinando digitalmente una scansione 3-D di un cavallo da lavoro tassidermizzato e un letto d’ospedale di alluminio lucido, poi opacizzato, il dettaglio dell’impressionante materialità della scultura offre un’immensa quantità di dati percepibili ad occhio nudo.
I Problem Paintings—siano primi piani d’inventario o realizzati appositamente, colorati e ingranditi su differenti scale e poi ostruiti da immagini serigrafate—dimostrano un contrasto di sistemi rappresentativi che è sia compulsivo sia di umorismo grottesco. Il monumentale Problem Painting associa una donna ad un uovo, come elemento centrale della mostra; i lavori correlati Innocent Problem, Real Problem, e Sloppy Problem (tutti del 2013) introducono altri archetipi femminili e maschili obliterati, allo stesso modo, da uova che sono perfettamente intere o tagliate a metà per esporne il tuorlo compatto.
All’interno della mostra un piccolo vaso di fiori colorati ravviva la sala, rafforzando le continue esplorazioni di Fischer: le proporzioni, la percezione, e il rapporto tra arte e realtà.
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Artist
Urs Fischer: Wave
In this video, Urs Fischer elaborates on the creative process behind his public installation Wave, at Place Vendôme, Paris.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022
The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.
Urs Fischer: Denominator
Urs Fischer sits down with his friend the author and artist Eric Sanders to address the perfect viewer, the effects of marketing, and the limits of human understanding.
Urs Fischer: Lovers
The exhibition Urs Fischer: Lovers at Museo Jumex, Mexico City, brings together works from international public and private collections as well as from the artist’s own archive, alongside new pieces made especially for the exhibition. To mark this momentous twenty-year survey, the artist sits down with the exhibition’s curator, Francesco Bonami, to discuss the installation.
Awol Erizku and Urs Fischer: To Make That Next Move
On the eve of Awol Erizku’s exhibition in New York, he and Urs Fischer discuss what it means to be an image maker, the beauty of blurring genres, the fetishization of authorship, and their shared love for Los Angeles.
Bourse de Commerce
William Middleton traces the development of the new institution, examining the collaboration between the collector François Pinault and the architect Tadao Ando in revitalizing the historic space. Middleton also speaks with artists Tatiana Trouvé and Albert Oehlen about Pinault’s passion as a collector, and with the Bouroullec brothers, who created design features for the interiors and exteriors of the museum.
News
Artist Spotlight
Urs Fischer
June 24–30, 2020
Urs Fischer mines the potential of materials—from clay, steel, and paint to bread, dirt, and produce—to create works that disorient and bewilder. Through scale distortions, illusion, and the juxtaposition of common objects, his paintings, sculptures, photographs, and large-scale installations explore themes of perception and representation while maintaining a witty irreverence and mordant humor.
Photo: Chad Moore
