Kim Fisher

About the Artist

Born 1973 in Hackensack, New Jersey

Kim Fisher’s painting evokes the ethos of collage, even if collage itself is not literally part of the work. The artist deftly renders her compositions—usually sourced from fashion magazines, newspapers, and shopping bags—through a methodical process of layering oil on linen.

In Magazine Paintings (2011– ), Fisher’s ongoing series, her investment in collage as both an attitude and technique becomes increasingly clear. Fisher begins with small-scale collage studies then translates the straight, curved, and jagged edges of the cut and torn magazine scraps to her paintings. The majority feature faded single-color compositions, spectral gradations, or abstracted landscapes that seem to reach beyond their frames.

Fisher’s large scale reproductions are almost indistinguishable from the initial collages. This disorienting effect is intentional, intricately linked to the context of painting in Los Angeles. The particularities of light in the city and the ways it is absorbed by, refracted through, and reflected off the surfaces and objects it moves across—unsettling the eye as it blinds and bleaches—are only a few of the tensions Fisher purposefully refuses to resolve.