Light and dark. Tangible, intangible. Internal, external. The interplay between these concepts is what Jake Fischer explores in his latest series of nocturnes, which will be on view at Bentley Gallery in Phoenix beginning May 17.
Fischer found a means to visually express these dualities during nighttime wanderings through neighborhoods in New York City, where he lived for several years before returning to Arizona to be closer to family. Camera in hand, he would seek out compelling architectural compositions, taking hundreds of photos that might yield 10 that captured a scene he wanted to paint. The right windows needed to be illuminated; the color of the walls or other sources of light, like the glow of a television, are all factors that could enhance or detract from its appeal.
In and Out, oil on panel, 41½ x 30¼"
“I like thinking of windows as floating in space, without the building, built into a black, ethereal sky,” Fischer says. “I like how the darkness isolates the shapes…each window becomes its own individual abstract painting, like a little Mark Rothko, suspended in space.”
For Fischer, his creative output is an exploration of consciousness that grew out of looking at the two sides of everyday life—the internal world of our thoughts and the way we physically move throughout our days and, ultimately, our lives. The use of blackness or night, represents the former—the internal dialogue, the subjective, the ambiguous, intangible and unknown. Fischer experiences that state of mind as being regularly punctuated by the external, physical world, like the lit-up windows that catch his eye and punctuate his work. In this way, Fischer’s use of light illuminates the physical world and represents it.
Doorstep, oil on panel, 48 x 60"
“I’m spending most of my time in my own head, but every once in awhile thoughts are redirected by actual engagement with my physical space,” Fischer elaborates. “Everyday experience relies on both sides of that coin—I’m moving through time and space having a physical experience, but it’s also the thoughts I’m having. They rely on each other to create an entire experience. It’s a very codependent relationship.”
As it is with life, so it is with the paintings themselves. The negative space is just as important as the areas that are lit and both are necessary to create a cohesive composition.
“They kind of represent the type of experience I’m talking about—the moving back and forth between mental and physical worlds,” says Fischer. “The image wouldn’t work if they didn’t work together.”
Schema, oil on panel, 42 x 60"
Even Fischer’s process embodies a wholistic approach, beginning with hand-crafting his own custom canvases, labor-intensive work he cannot separate from the finished piece or the image itself. He gives his wood panels—each one created with dimensions for a specific image—a beveled edge so they cut inward and achieve the edgeless effect of an infinity pool. He doesn’t frame his work either.
“I don’t want to people to see the painting as an illusion of space,” he says. “I want people to be in the same space with it. They are three dimensional objects. It’s not just about the image—it’s an art object…I almost think of them as sculptures. I don’t want to separate it from the viewer by creating a frame—I want viewers to feel invited into the image and involved in the experience.”
Triptych, oil on panel, 25 x 47"
Again, this too is speaking to the same notions that run through Fischer’s work on different levels. Standing before a painting of his, the mind is asked to flip back and forth between being drawn into the image, the illusory, and being jolted out by experiencing the painting as a three-dimensional object in physical space.
“The whole process connects to the image too,” says Fischer. “It becomes one thing. Being that involved, I don’t see it as a separate part of [the] process.” —
Bentley Gallery 250 E. McKinley Street • Phoenix, AZ 85004 • (480) 946-6060 • www.bentleygallery.com
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