GALERIE MOURLOT

I believe the quality of art is measured to the extent that intelligent and compelling thoughts and feelings are imbued into and summoned out by the work. Portraiture has been the focus of my work since 2009. My paintings and drawings join universal themes of mortality and the metaphysical aspects of “self” vs. the physical aspects of “self”. Via portraiture, I work to conjure simultaneously a potent, vivid description of my model and evoke the presence and sensation of an underlying psyche. My goal is to elicit an emanation from my “sitter” of the interior life; to allude to the unconscious, the realm of feeling behind our actions.

Through obsessive scraping or erasing my paint or charcoal becomes increasingly animated and agitated. Until something emerges from my material that embodies an authentic emotional state and evokes a particular presence, I fold my constructions back into the inert material and try over and over again to provoke and imbue it with meaning. As a process, drawing is less “encumbered” than painting. Ideas and goals are more transparent and closer to the surface. Drawing always leads me to technical improvements and deeper, clearer content in my paintings. I draw as often as I paint.

Anthony Fisher, Assistant Professor in Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth received his MFA from Yale University in 1986 and his BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1982. You can learn about his work visiting his website at afisherpaintings.net. Mr. Fisher exhibits at Galerie Mourlot, NY, NY. Fisher’s next solo exhibit is scheduled for March, 2013, his fourth since 2003. He has received reviews of his work in Art News and Art Critical. In January – March 2012, Fisher’s paintings and drawings spanning six years were exhibited at the Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. Mr. Fisher’s work is included in numerous private and public collections.