Stephen Fisher
Stephen Fisher
Printmaker
Printmaker Stephen Fisher, Professor Art at Rhode Island College, will present a slide lecture on his work Tuesday, April 16, 2002 at 4:30 p.m. in room 154 of the Bixler Art and Music Building at Colby College.
Bret Rothstein writes, “Stephen Fisher’s images are marked by a deceptive clarity that demands and rewards careful viewing. Consider the rendering of texture: here a dull arc of rib intersects with the hard glint of polished tile, there a rough, fibrous bundle of rose stems rests against the soft grain of stained wood. Elsewhere, the cool hardness of brushed aluminum reflects in the fluid highlights of a glass bell jar. Even movement, so rare in these works, appears more as texture than as event. The dark blur of rotating fan blades, metamorphoses into an ebony haze that offsets the waxy smoothness of an eggplant below. Such contrasts heighten the tactile appeal of these objects, enhancing their seeming presence before us. As a result, Fisher’s prints and drawings appear at first blush to be simple exercises in the art of describing. On closer examination, though, objects become increasingly dissociated from the sort of physicality we initially read in them.”
Fisher received his B.F.A. degree with high honors in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an M.F.A. in printmaking from Yale University. He has received numerous fellowships and awards, has had eighteen solo exhibitions, and been included in almost every annual juried show in the nation. Prior to Rhode Island College, he taught at Rhode Island School of Design, Amherst College, the University of Tulsa, and Wesleyan University.
Stephen Fisher’s talk, which is sponsored by the Colby College Art Department and supported by funds from the Arts Lecture Fund, is open to the public without charge. A reception will follow the talk allowing guests to meet the artist.