Matthew F Fisher’s Care Package

For Matthew F Fisher’s Care Package, he has put together two exhibitions. First, a curated group exhibition, Four Seasons: a Group Show, with Malene Borregaard, Vince Contarino, Michele Hemsoth and Timm Mettler, accompanied by a solo exhibition of his own work opening on November 2, Four Seasons: A Solo Show. Fisher will be raising awareness for the Tolga Bat Hospital, the largest bat rehabilitation facility in Australia.

Four Seasons: a Group Show

Four Seasons: a Group Show brings together four abstract artists working today with each artist's work representing one of the four seasons. These artworks, although originally not intended as such, have been selected to invoke a feeling of the season by Matthew F Fisher. Malene Borregaard's stark paper cut outs of semi-humanoid forms, snow angels, are an instant reminder of what a fresh snowfall conceleies. Michele Hemsoth's pictograph abstractions reference new sprouts, leaves uncurling, and the start of growth that will become summer. Timm Mettler's found string sculpture, throwaways reassembled into a larger forum, reference neural networks, Google Maps, and the inevitable overgrowth of the summer garden. Vince Contarino's colorful work on paper, with it's dashes and daps, reds, yellows, purples, and green, are the old saw that autumn always happens in stages, latitudes, and days.

One of the relationships that surprised me as the curator of this show, was the use of negative space by each artist. From Borregaard's direct cutouts, to Hemsoth's figure ground flip flop, to the shapes created by Mettler's tied string wall hangings, to Contarino's use of raw paper as both color and shape. There's something about this idea of negative space that remains universal, a reminder that our years are defined not by the few days we remember, but by all of those days that we forget.

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Malene Borregaard (B.1972) lives and works on a small island in Denmark. In her artistic work, a recurring focus is “The hidden in the obvious”. She has a BA in History of Ideas and Film and Media from Aarhus University (2007) but considers herself self-taught in the field of art. At age 24, she received a one-year scholarship from the Ministry of Culture in Denmark to work independently with painting. In 2017 where chronic illness for a long time had reduced her artistic work, a ritual of making simple cutouts in paper emerged. The naive abstract figures function as nonverbal letters soothing and strengthening. None of the many cutouts from the recent years has been physically displayed in a public context until now.

Vince Contarino is a Brooklyn-based artist and curator. He received his BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, FL and has exhibited in and outside of NYC for the past decade. Awards and residencies include The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program and a Fellowship in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He was featured in “Golden Age: Perspectives on abstract painting today”, published by NUTUREart and his work has been covered in Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, SFAQ, among others. He previously organized exhibitions as co-founder of the artist-run curatorial initiative, Progress Report and from 2015-18, was a partner and co-director of Present Company, a Brooklyn-based exhibition and social space.

Michele Hemsoth received her MFA from University of Chicago in 1981. Her paintings have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions since the early 1980s, most recently a solo exhibition at Sardine in Brooklyn and group shows at The Breeder, Athens, GR and Ampersand Gallery, Portland, ME. Hemsoth lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Timm Mettler (b. Clearwater, Florida) is an artist. He received his BA from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. He has exhibited at Novella Gallery, Manhattan; Hyperallergic HQ, Brooklyn; Art Connects New York, Manhattan; Largo Library, Largo; Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg; The Studio@620, St. Petersburg. He currently lives in Queens, NY.

Matthew F Fisher, Four Seasons: A Solo Show

I wish I were a rock.

William Steig, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
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In Matthew F Fisher’s drawings, there are many more than four seasons. All of life’s seasons are animated in the crevices. Sometimes, it seems that the cold of the winter brings us close, but it can also feel like it will never end. The summer heat can be freeing but it can be too much to bear. The hope and nostalgia of Spring can feel fleeting. And autumn offers a respite but it also hints at what’s to come. These seasons help us to mark time, to understand what feeds us, and to find a season of our own.

Text by Jon Lutz

Matthew F Fisher (born 1976) has had solo shows with SHRINE, New York, NY (2020), Taymour Grahne Projects, London, UK (2019, 2017), Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA (2021,2019), and Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA (2018). He has curating several group shows, including Crunch, The Breeder, Athens, GK (2017), Nothing Less, SARDINE, Brooklyn, NY (2014), New York, New Work: The Object Direct, Mississippi State University (2008), and The Longest Day, co-curated with Jon Lutz, Brooklyn, NY (2008). Fisher lives and works in New York City.

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The Care Package Project is a new approach to exhibiting art in the time of COVID-19. Six artists (Madeleine Bialke, Matthew F Fisher, Jim Gaylord, Nickola Pottinger, Ryan Wilde and Crys Yin) have been asked to put together a “care package” of small artworks along with good books, articles, recipes, etc. that have brought them comfort or inspiration during this time of isolation. All the artworks will be available for sale and all other items in the package will be publicly available on the artists’ care package pages below. With this, we hope to bring more of a human feel to online exhibitions and a sense of community and connection during this time when we can’t be physically together. To open up accessibility, all works will be available for direct purchase online. Lastly, for those who are not in a position to acquire works from the exhibitions, we ask that you show your support by donating to the organization of the artist’s choice as a sign of solidarity. The organization’s details will be provided during each artist’s online exhibition, including a direct link to the donation page.