Thomas Fischer

During his short life, Fischer apprenticed with the painter Gerhard Richter, worked as a music video choreographer, taught art history at the University of Freiberg and built dozens of gorgeous hot air balloons - one of which he tragically died in while photographing the Ruhr Valley in 1998.

In the 5 years leading up to his accident, Fischer created a massive, if highly uneven, body of work. Though he dabbled in sculpture and film, Fischer was primarily a painter and photographer. He often stated that his goal was to "...Show that impressionism and expression are really the same damn thing, parts of the same respiratory-like process." To achieve his objective, Fischer often applied thick acrylic paint to the documentary-style black and white photographs he took during his extensive travels. Favoring bright colors and aggressively gestural strokes, Fischer's painted photographs engage viewers with contrasting layers of what the artist called 'contex/nt'. Often humorous at first glance, a longer look will usually allow the viewer to detect Fischer's preoccupation with social and environmental themes.