About the Exhibit - Leo
On October 14th, 2019, during FIAC, Leo, and exhibit by Urs Fisher opened at Gagosian’s Paris location.
The center of the exhibit (literally) is a candle sculpture titled - Leo (George & Irmelin), is Leonardo DiCaprio with his parents, George DiCaprio and Irmelin Indenbirken. If you’re not familiar with Fisher’s candle sculptures, they are lit at the beginning of the exhibit and burn throughout the duration of the show
“Captivating in their materiality and haunting in their implications, Fischer’s candles serve as both portraits of—and meditations on—the passing of time. Elaborating on traditions of memento mori, they remind viewers of the transience of life, beauty, and even art itself.” - Gagosian (source)
“Fischer frequently evokes art historical genres and motifs with wry self-awareness and humor.” Gagosian (source)
Fisher’s exploration of creation and destruction dates back as early as 2004 with his creation of ‘Bread House’ - a life-size cabin constructed from loaves of sourdough bread.
Fisher first introduced the concept of ‘candle sculptures’ at the 2011 Venice Biennale, where he presented a wax copy of Giambologna’s late-sixteenth-century sculpture Rape of the Sabine. In 2018 he created another candle sculpture of art Dasha Zhukova (art patron + collector) at Gagosian in London.
About the Artist
“People seem to fear art. Art has always been a word for this thing that can’t be rationalized; when you see or hear something that you struggle to explain. But that’s its strength, of course, that’s what the word “art” is for.” —Urs Fischer
Urs Fisher is a Swiss artist who lives and works in New York. He’s a master of many mediums, creating sculpture, installation, and photography.
“He deploys a dizzying range of materials from food to mirrors to dirt in a production process that is both organic and experimental.” - Sadie Coles HQ
“Themes of absence and presence, as well as the processes of art production, pervade his work, in which Fischer makes use of tables, chairs, shadows, and light to explore distortion and anthropomorphism.” - Gagosian
He studied photography at the Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich. Fisher is represented by Gagosian and Sadie Coles HQ.
