Beatrice Fisher - A Retrospective - 1939-2009

October 16 - November 12, 2009

For a larger view and/or more information, click on the thumbnails below:

About the Exhibition:
Woman Made Gallery is pleased to present a retrospective solo exhibition by artist Beatrice Fisher.

This is Beatrice Fisher’s first solo show, although she has produced art for more than five decades. Her most influential teachers were Don Baum and Karl Wirsum, and one can certainly see the Chicago Imagist tendencies take various incarnations throughout her work.

Her career spiked in the 1970’s when she enjoyed brief representation at the Phyllis Kind Gallery, and one of her paintings won a top award at the Chicago and Vicinity show, held at the Art Institute. That painting, included in this retrospective, is of an 8 foot tall, cross-shaped structure whose crest resembles a penis. The form is draped with pieces of fabric that look similar to white pillow cases. The ambiguity, the sexuality, the threatening yet humorous tone and the technical precision of the outlines and smooth paint finish, all embody the Chicago art style of the seventies.

Children, divorce, re-marriage and another child interrupted Fisher’s career, but not her art-making. Throughout the next three decades she produced hundreds of paintings, drawings, and objects that include ready-mades, kites, and pillows. There are numerous images that reoccur in paint, fabric, and glitter; among them are fetuses, penises, crosses, conjoined twins, couples engaged in sexual acts and camouflage patterns. These works pay homage, not only to the Imagists, but to the Surrealists, Outsider Art and New Yorker cartoons.

Fisher writes,” My work evolves from psychological states and experiences that become externalized through the use of visual elements I encounter or research. With a penchant for ambiguity and the absurd, I combine incongruous elements to suggest mysterious narratives and investigate themes of separation, love, and loss.”