Vernon Fisher constructs meticulously-rendered visual narratives woven with literary and scientific references, as well as pop cultural imagery and iconography culled from his youth. His fascination with how people make sense of the world results in humorous, ironic, or melancholic works with often paradoxical subjects and stylistic variations. He frequently employs the effect of photography, verifiable dates of historical events and educational instruments – blackboards, maps, and globes – to establish authenticity and coalesce fact and fiction.
Vernon Fisher was born in Texas in 1943. He received his MFA at the University of Illinois in 1969. He is the recipient of numerous accolades including three National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist’s Fellowships and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995. In 2010, The University of Texas Press published a monograph, Vernon Fisher, in tandem with Vernon Fisher: K-Mart Conceptualism, the artist’s career retrospective at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. He has been included in two Whitney Biennials (most recently in 2000) and his work is in several public collections including, Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, MN; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (TX); Museum of Modern Art (NY); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (NY); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. The artist lives and works in Fort Worth, TX.