Art reviews
Translated to English from Blikk Magazine
USUALLY you can not touch the paintings
when you see them in a gallery. The visual
Michelle Fisch is no nonsense and urges
to the contrary when she exhibits at S9 gallery in Grünerløkka in early June.
– I want people to know and feel the paintings,
and especially those that are visually impaired, they will have an opportunity to
feel the pictures. The paintings have a lot of structure, Michelle uses shells and other natural elements. You can
putting pictures on the floor and feel like you can step into winter
or autumn if you want to. Fisch’s blouse is as colorful as some of her pictures.
She wants to do things her own way.
“I have the energy and initiative to do something
that is different. I’ve always liked art and
studied the subject, but I felt often limited
and that I just had to do as I was told”.
Michelle Fisch is originally from England. Four years ago she met her wife Anne Gro on a feietur
on Lesbos, and thus brought her love
to Oslo. She has lived ten years in Hollywood and
was inspired by the artists there. In 1994 began
to paint in earnest. Her paintings are colorful
in oil and acrylic on large canvases.
– The paintings will enhance a heady feeling.
For Fisch’s imagination and color to convey important than
hidden messages.
“I like that people see different things in my paintings, but most importantly they make you feel happy.
My sea view are not traditional,
for I do not like flowers photos and ordinary landscapes.
20 photos from this year’s four seasons will adorn the walls
at Gallery Sverdrupsgt. 9 in the beginning of
June, but only a few days later she also shows
paintings on Town Square during the Gay Pride days
the annual exhibition for Queer artists, where
Fisch also serves on the board.
“We were actually moving back to England this year,
but when spring and summer is here, Oslo is the
best place to be, and I want to make a difference.
I want to bring more people together,
and I work for Queer artists I hope will be
twice as many artists who participate next year. [Ms]
Michelle Fisch, “Four Seasons”, Gallery S9, Sverdrupsgt.
9, Oslo, 4-10. June. Info: sverdrupsgate9.no
Art review: the work of Michelle Fisch, Oslo.
MICHELLE FISCH: An artist to invest in …
– criticism of the latest art exhibition by Michelle Fisch, Norway-United Kingdom.
In an age where new artistic expressions are seldom – and regenerated copies of artistic trends from the past forty years are all too common – it is (today) rather refreshing to find an artist that successfully applies creative technical solutions to achieve monumental artistic results. Michelle Fisch has, in her recent painting exhibition entitled «Four Seasons» (June 4 – June 10, 2011, S9 Galleri, Oslo, Norway), achieved an impressive presentation of acrylic «glazed» paintings that is eye-popping. Utilizing materials such as metallic and acrylic paints, tile adhesive, floor flakes and organic materials, Ms. Fisch – effectively – has created several three-dimensional pieces that provide an almost four-dimensional effect for the viewer. Among the most powerful works – in my opinion – are 1) «Winter», 2) «Spring», 3) «Hand in Hand» and 4) «Swimming in Space».
«Winter» (80 x 80 cm) is a predominantly white on off-white piece, consisting of canvas, acrylic paints, leaves, twigs, sand, floor flakes, tile adhesive and acrylic paints. The work is adeptly «finished» with a glazed effect achieved by using a substance called ‘realistic water’. The final effect is both chilling (as the title would suggest) and warming in that the work not only mimics the impression of new-fallen snow covering the forest floor but also takes the viewer on a journey inside the structure of the snowflakes themselves – exposing the overall effect of the blanketing snow as merely a mirrored effect of the inner structure of the snowflakes themselves.
Similar in style is «Spring» (80 x 80 cm), but this work reveals the freshness of the sparkling emerald wooded landscape – up close under a magnifying glass – inviting fantasies of Elvin magic and dancing gnomes. In a verdant forest everything feels possible, and in Ms. Fisch’s «Spring» and «Winter» one definitely gets the sense that one can walk right into each respective work of art and its open-ended experience. This is both due to the perfect square format that the artist has employed and to the interplay between collage, glazed effect and harmonic and nuanced transitions in colours. Both «Winter» and «Spring» are successful because they do not attempt to describe the seasons in a realistic or abstract way, but rather interpret the feeling provided by the experience of these seasons. The viewer is immediately transported into his/her memory of such related experience.
The third work that I would like to comment on is «Hand in Hand», 120 x 80 cm, which is a seascape painting featuring sea and waves butting against a beach. Ms. Fisch has here achieved a rather dramatic effect by building up the crests of the waves in strategic places, thus enabling a motion and a musicality that would otherwise be lost had she merely made this painting with acrylic paints upon a flat surface. Here the artist has used the following materials to create the multi-dimensional effects: tile adhesive, sand, metallic and acrylic paints. The result is breathtaking and, again, this work brings to life every person’s memories of a windy day at the beach. So real – in fact – that one can almost taste the salty air and feel the occasional spray of the water as the surfacing waves gasp for breath.
And finally, I would like to present «Swimming in Space», 102 x 122 cm, which is a delightful space-psychedelic painting featuring orbs of light, silvery remnants of stars and planets and purple-blue undersea activity transformed into an outer space perspective. In this work the viewer is released to swim with the asteroids, in free form and without a care in the universe. This piece is energizing but yet harmonic. Here again, the artist has used the following materials: tile adhesive, shells, pebbles, sand, metallic and acrylic paints.
Ms. Fisch says the following about her inspiration to create these exciting and original works: “My inspiration comes from an organic rough yet pure source. I want the viewer to look at my paintings from afar as well as up close, and to then see how his/her perception changes. I create tactile images that allow the viewer to connect with the painting on a level that could not be achieved by just looking. I want my paintings to be aesthetically pleasing as well as to bring out the fantasy.“
Michelle Fisch is most decidedly an artist to follow … and an artist to invest in.
Written by:
Adam Donaldson Powell
Oslo, Norway, June 4, 2011
All photos courtesy of Michelle Fisch
See her Saatchi online gallery webpage!
See her Website
MICHELLE FISCH 
Well done Michelle…