Urs Fischer (b. 1973)

"You need to find new ways of disrupting your environment in order to keep it interesting for yourself. Change is healthy. It keeps the mind alive" (Urs Fischer interview with Neville Wakefield, in Another Magazine, Spring/Summer 2008, p. 411).


Urs Fischer's artistic practice is based on the reflection of the nature of matter, stuff, things, the act of making, doing something and the erratic and changeable processes that can result from combining the two.

Not limiting himself to one medium and working with materials as diverse as Clay, fruit, bread, wax, wood, Styrofoam, birds, silicone, mirrors and paint to name a few, he revitalizes classic art historical genres such as the nude, still life and landscape in heady sculptures that are full of the wonderful complexity of the modern world and show an artist who is completely aware and attentive of his everyday surroundings.

Often coming up with pleasantly unexpected formal solutions, each work is approached with a fresh set of questions, the present lot Why does a tree grow can one ask too many questions is the perfect manifestation of the artists thought process made solid, one could propose that he would come to the work with the question "How would you describe a 10 minute old fried egg? Nothing but rubbery."

Fischer's work often hovers between the ugly and beautiful, refined and troublesome, dignified and the ham-fisted, often leaving the viewer in wonderfully perplexed state and often taking them away from their emotional stability.

This mundane, yet unusual approach to art making brings him to the forefront of a significant group of artists working today.