Urs Fischer

Urs Fischer, born in 1973 in Switzerland, is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City. Trained as a photographer at the Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich, Fischer has an intuitive understanding of the power of images and, in turn, the power of distorting them, which he embraces in his practice to access his characteristic humor and intellectual rigor.

Fischer’s oeuvre, often in a self-reflexive interrogation that questions our relationship with images, consists of bewildering compositions immersed in illusions and unforeseen transformations. Using common materials or objects like bread, dirt, bolts, and screws—both in material and motif—the artist navigates themes of absence and presence, the commonplace and the outstanding, or understanding and illegibility. His works, whether they be paintings, photographs, sculptures, or installations, playfully destabilize the viewer to unlock unexpected perspectives and ideas.

Over the course of his celebrated career, Fischer has solidified his position as one of the most provocative and pioneering voices among the artists of today. His works have been the subject of solo exhibitions at esteemed museums such as the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, and the Modern Institute, Glasgow and has also been included in group shows such as The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, Performance at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis or Riotous Baroque: From Cattelan to Zurbaran - Tributes to Precarious Vitality at the Kunsthaus Zurich and Guggenheim Bilbao. His works are represented in the collection of numerous renowned public collections such as the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.