PLATO
PREVIOUS EXHIBITION
Matthew F Fisher
Matthew's Dream
October 17 – November 23, 2024
Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analyzing a dream.
C.G. Jung
I never liked the idea of my paintings existing in a dream space, or having some sort of structural reality one finds in a dream, but rather, I prefer to read the imagery as memories. Maybe a dream is nothing more than a memory of last night while you slept.
Of the sea, but not in the sea. The meaning of the shell is heightened by its floating above an image from which it came. It is the lasting homage to a life lived, and at times, a life given. A marker of days past, a physical reminder of now. Like the clouds above, and the mountains above them, our reality is not limited by what we can see, or know, but rather by the immensity of what we cannot see and do not know.
The mountain is a new motif for me. A true testament to the age of the earth, these rugged monoliths cut into the sky. Surrounded by a sea of clouds, the giant rocks are suspended, almost defying concepts of our knowledge. Inspired by Marsden Hartley’s paintings of mountaintops, my stylized take on these otherworld landscapes is meant to remind us how we most often experience these moments through other lenses and not our own eyes.
I have long used the image of the albatross, with its endurance and endless flight without touching land, as a stand-in for the artist. The First Day of History depicts this bird mid-flight, in front of a wall of crashing waves. No land, no sky in sight. The title hints at something grand about to happen, with or without the subject’s knowledge. The timeless idea of everyday, of all days. What's the meaning of a week when you don't know the year?
Several of the paintings depict objects in motion, frozen: a setting sun, soaring bird, wind, rolling clouds, and a giant wave about to fully crest. The feeling of floating is often used to describe dreams. Federico Fellini once observed that “Nothing is more honest than a dream.” These moments are a reminder that everything has happened, or will, or might not ever. Time is a loop that we experience one step at time. Sometimes you have to look up to see where you have been.
– Matthew F Fisher
Matthew F Fisher (b.1976) lives and works in New York, NY. He received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and his BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. His recent solo exhibitions include Matthew's Dream, Plato, NY (upcoming), Small Paintings, Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2024), The Study of Shapes, SHRINE, NY (2023), Lakes, Devening Projects, Chicago (2022), Time and Space, Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2022), East Hampton Hole Phase Three, The Hole, East Hampton, NY (2021), Seas, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2021), The Great Fire, SHRINE, New York, NY (2020); After the Ice, Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK (2019); Soft Nature, Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2019); Strange Light, Over Under Room, Brooklyn, NY (2018); Into the Blue, Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA (2018); and Observable Universe, Taymour Grahne Gallery, New York, NY (2017). Fisher’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Spazio 22, Milan, Italy and The Breeder, Athens, Greece. Fisher is the recipient of residencies and awards including a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant (2016), Yaddo (2015, 2007), a New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship (2010), and the Millay Colony for the Arts (2005).