Kyle Ethan Fischer
When Kyle Ethan Fischer was twelve years old he experienced massive eye trauma and was told that he may never see again. Fischer miraculously recovered and values the basic act of seeing everyday. With each painting he challenges the viewer to examine their own act of seeing. The famous geneticist James D. Watson makes the point that “no two people ever see the same events in exactly the same light …” Scientific research varies almost as much as human personality and so does the process of viewing and making art. In creating a painting, it is important to cultivate a process and produce work which invites the viewer to examine process and challenge traditional concepts of space, surface, and color.
As Hans Hoffman advocated, Fischer is always concerned with the depth created in a painterly and illusionary existence. Different planes create different interactions. The structure and depth he creates begins with the printmaking process. Using imagery from scientific journals, ancient mythology, and his sketchbook, Fischer transfers the images onto the ground of the painting like a map or genetic code. The transfer is important in the process because like DNA each germinates from the same resource material; it is through the process it mutates. Often the image is a copy of a copy of a drawing of a copy of a photo. Like a clone or hidden DNA there a mutation that alters the work. This “under painting” is the basis upon which Fischer chooses to build allowing portions of the print to appear and disappear. This foundation determines the surface of the work.
Through both traditional and unorthodox paint application, Fischer creates multiple layers achieving an Orientalism masking the imagery which may be saccharin or sinister. As Jackson Pollock mimicked nature with work which registers on fractal indexes and Barnett Newman zipped out portions of paint in his paintings, it is Fischer's intention to use techniques that are both additive and deductive. He uses remnants of his sculpture, ceramic fibers & crochet to develop texture. Pollock once stated, "I am nature." Fischer believes that he is anthropomorphizing the picture plane by creating body identity on a micro scale. The tributaries, seg-ways, and passages may represent topographical views of our earth or an iris, capillary or neuron. Micro develops a familiar sense of space turned on its side.
Color is integral in both creating space and surface texture; but most important in conveying meaning. Fischer's painting is involved with interconnectivity as balance with life/nature and references the spirit. Everything has its own spirit and it is through color that he communicates this. Red evokes struggle of human kind and has many dimensions- bloodshed, war or valor. Blue and green allude to nature and the earth and may be physically referencing mountains or rivers, but really shows the depth of our spirit. White is the connection with the creator as manifested through purity peace or even death. Dispossession, power, and journey are the meanings of the black hues he uses. The most important hues Fischer uses are the yellows and metallic paints and leafs that resonate throughout the piece. Yellow is where the sun rises and life begins and means transcendence. The reflective nature and apparent darkness or lightness of the metallic materials means that these take on different attributes of different color worlds at different times.
It is the use of these elements in Fischer's paintings that creates multiple symbols and divisions in a singular vision. With each painting he challenges the viewer and their observations of how to see, what the science of seeing is, what is fact, and can fact be poetic? Ultimately, Fischer wants people to value and enjoy the act of seeing.
EDUCATION- Kyle Ethan Fischer received his BFA in Painting from The Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme Connecticut where he was classically trained. He studied the figure under Deane Keller and anatomist Dr. Wayne Southwick at Yale medical school, learned methods and materials from Steve Sheehan, director of the Ralph Meyer Center at Yale, and painting under David Dewey student of Hans Hoffman. After pursuing painting he received a stipend and scholarship to study abroad at the National College of Art, Dublin in Ireland concentrating on sculpture and installation and developing an understanding of the “sensation” ideology in the UK; influenced by artists Dorothy Cross and Damien Hirst. After returning to the U.S., he attended the Corcoran College of Art in Washington DC further exploring sculpture and under the tutelage of Genna Watson returned to the figure. Fischer then moved to Pittsburgh where he is able to pursue a pluralistic approach exploring all facets of materials from large scale installation and performance art to small expressionistic ink studies. He is a member of Group A and has exhibited locally and nationally.
Review: Reflective Pigments Aid Artist in Achieving a 'Lightening of the Palette'
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