Matthew F Fisher is a painter of depth while using the flattest of methods. He plays with color and shapes, the slightest of textures and a hint of surrealism to look at nature, painting the sea and the coast and the objects we find there. The Study of Shapes, Fisher's newest solo show at Shrine in NYC, is all of these things together, a wonderful array of rolling waves and acidic skies that appear like a dreamscape of the familiar. It's a paradise that seems almost alarmingly over-detailed in the most minimalistic way.
The show starts with a quote from Helen Frankenthaler in1965: "The landscapes were in my arms as I did it." For Fisher, it's like the landscape is right in front of him and yet painted from a dream. These are fantasy paintings, elegant and mysterious even though we all have a sense of knowing where they are. —Evan Pricco
