Events/
Julia Fish

Julia Fish's paintings are quiet, abstract manifestations of observed realities drawn from personal experiences, memories and her own immediate surroundings. Many of her early paintings focused on natural phenomena: clouds, snow, frost, vines, bark and ivy. Her more recent work draws upon the poetics of domestic architectural elements, such as a tile floor, studio window, or hall entryway. Fish explained, "As an artist, I live and think through images. My work initiates from something familiar, simply seen in the world, but marked by a special sense of recognition- it is memorable, and requires a second look." Methodical and precise, Fish slowly constructs her compositions with many layers of thinned paint, carefully building the surface, at times eliminating visible brushstrokes and negotiating defined edges. In her presentation [home ] work : images in context, she will discuss an overview of studio work and site-specific projects, in addition to examples of historical and contemporary art and architecture that have been influential in the development of her work.

The Society for Contemporary Art would like to acknowledge our partnership with Sotheby's for this and upcoming events.

Since 1980 Julia Fish has had twenty-one solo exhibitions and a ten-year survey at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (1996). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (2009); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2006, 2002, 1998, 1996); the Rhona Hoffman Gallery; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1997); Chicago Cultural Center (2000, 1994); the MAK Center for Art and Architecture / Schindler House, Los Angeles (2001); Hyde Park Art Center (2006, 1986); Gallery 400 (2003); David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art (2006); and the Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (1994). Fish has received numerous awards including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (1991), a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting (1993), the Cal Arts / Alpert Ucross Residency Prize (2001), and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award (2006); along with research and travel awards from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she is Professor of Studio Arts in the School of Art and Design, College of Architecture and the Arts....