(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)July 25, 2007

(Mahwah) – An exhibit of works by R.M. Fischer will open September 12, 2007 in the Kresge Gallery on the campus of Ramapo College of New Jersey to complement the completion of his site-specific sculpture View Port at the Anisfield School of Business.  View Port has been realized through the New Jersey Public Buildings Arts Inclusion Act, which provides for dedicating a portion of publicly financed building construction costs for the fine arts.  A reception will be held September 19 from 5 – 7 p.m.; an artist’s talk will begin at 6 p.m.  The exhibit runs through October 12.

The “Composition” group, on display in the Kresge Gallery, are artworks suspended from the ceiling and assembled from various objects and industrial materials.  Fischer says the pieces conjure up recollections of wildly various source materials, such as art and architecture, Art Deco and modernist accessories and graphics, emblems and medallions.  The physical materials are as varied as the conceptual sources:  metal hardware, wooden balls, copper wire and elaborate decorative objects are assembled into transcendent compositions of industrial opulence.

Also on view will be a large-scale wall collage on vinyl of imagery, both invented and found, that will be created specifically for the Kresge Gallery exhibition.  The wall collage is meant to provide a representational thematic supplement to the mostly abstract “Composition” group.

The design for View Port at the Anisfield School of Business was derived, in part, from aspects of his “Composition” series.  The work is a sculptural intervention that is attached to the exterior of the building.  It is constructed with a stainless steel framework covered with aluminum panels painted bright yellow.  At one end of the portal is a triangular aperture with a red lens; at the other is a viewing “window.” Within the artwork’s interior space the converging lines and penetrating daylight suggest the compressed space of a three-point perspective viewing theater.  The work metaphorically celebrates the connection between man and his environment.

For the past 25 years, Fischer has been blurring the lines between art, architecture, design, fashion and technology.  He is acclaimed for his monumental site-specific public art commissions in which he often employs lighting elements that function as iconographic timepieces and are identified by their unusual incorporation of high tech industrial materials.  Most recently, Fischer provided a sculptural environmental treatment, which included four lanterns and a monumental illuminated clock, for the new Student Union at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.  Fischer’s public artwork for the convention center in Kansas City, rising on four 300-foot tall pylons, has become a nationally recognized symbol for the city.  And the artist’s four 25-foot tall sculptural light fixtures in Union Square Park in San Francisco has been hailed as a “humanizing factor in a otherwise sterile park renovation design.”

His public sculptures have become identifying civic emblems.  Fischer states, “I have always been intrigued with utopian manifestos.  The idea of a modernist utopian dream still seems exciting to me.  Of course, the original dream of the perfect modern world never materialized the way it was planned.  But for me, the modernist order is not so much about politics, but more about style.  It is the look and feel of the modern that interests me.”
This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

###

About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Press Release Archives

| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 |