The Darkness Between Night and Morning — Artist Matthew F. Fisher
Matthew F. Fisher
Minnesota · Michigan · Ohio · Virginia · Los Angeles · New York City · b. 1976Painter of ocean waves, seashells, seagulls and celestial bodies. He builds surfaces slowly, layering acrylic against flat gradient backgrounds. He finds titles in dictionaries. He keeps the phone at home when he walks the dog.
Matthew F. Fisher creates contemplative paintings that distill natural elements into symbolic forms — using a visual language shaped by recurring motifs. He builds his surfaces slowly, layering acrylic paint to create sculptural depth against flat, gradient backgrounds. This tension between material precision and pictorial stillness evokes both personal introspection and universal cycles.
Tell us about yourself.
"For the most part, I grew up in the vast Midwest: Minnesota, Michigan, and Ohio before moving to Virginia for grad school in 1998. For the last 20 plus years, with the exception of a few years in LA, I have called New York City home. Last year we moved into Manhattan and I got a studio there as well — thus becoming a true downtown painter."
"I am super excited to have my third solo show with Taymour Grahne Projects next year in London."
Your greatest inspirations or influences?
"The René Magritte and Ed Paschke retrospectives of the late 80s that I saw at the Art Institute of Chicago loom large over my development. Both shows exposed me to the power of painting, how to make images that are both strange and familiar, and the importance of humor to tell a story."
"Also, Georgia O'Keeffe's Sky Above Clouds IV has a special place in my heart. An image so simple and abstract at the same time — a perfect description of a floating cloud and the act of painting itself."
"I prefer to work off other people's drawings and not photographs. Lately, vintage children's books have been a great source — funny little vignette drawings of shells or an animal act as the base of the composition. I also pick up dictionaries whenever I can. I love the simple drawings of objects within."
"Once, I was doing a painting of an ocean at night, I looked up 'night' in the dictionary. 'The darkness between night and morning' was an instant title."
"I am a painter, alone in the studio for hours, days, weeks. In a funny way, I have always been a pandemic."
What does wellbeing mean to you, and what do you practice?
"Like using dictionaries to find titles, it's the journey that finds the answer."
"I keep the cell phone at home when I walk the dog. Keeps my head up, my eyes out, and my mind clear. It's only 20 to 40 minutes a few times a day. But during that time, I am able to clear my mind and reset."
"Make yourself laugh. Humor is the life of living. And this life is worth living."
You will also love
From the Antakly Projects archiveCroatian artist who carves circles into layered canvas. Like Fisher, his practice is about building slowly and trusting the process to find the answer.
Read on Antakly Projects ↗ Art · Colour · LondonIstanbul-born London artist whose botanical-scientific canvases share Fisher's meditative quality and love of the natural world made strange.
Read on Antakly Projects ↗ Photography · ConceptualPrague photographer whose work, like Fisher's, positions the horizon as a space for metaphysical reflection and the question that cannot be resolved.
Read on Antakly Projects ↗Antakly Projects — originally Ninu Nina — has been in conversation with painters, photographers, designers and creatives from across the world since 2003. Matthew F. Fisher's contemplative, luminous practice is exactly the kind of work this platform was built to share.
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The darkness between night and morning. ✦