SPENCER FIDLER

Spencer Fidler lives and works in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In some of his large-scaled etchings, he employs both imagery and texts from Classical sources. Other works deal with the human figure in ways that explore relationships. Fidler uses vibrant color and both actual and pictorial texture to express the content of his works. Fidler's works have been exhibited in many countries, including Mexico, Japan, Poland, Korea, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Taiwan, USSR, France, and Italy, as well as in many galleries and museums in the U. S.

STATEMENT:

As an intaglio printmaker I am inspired by many of the medium’s inherent characteristics. An important feature of intaglio for me is how the white of the paper breathes through the ink as the white of the plaster breathes through the pigment as in fresco. I am also interested in demonstrating that the predictability and outcome of the etched plate and its ground can also be altered by the manipulation of the paper(s). This allows for the composition to change resulting in surprising image juxtapositions, and thus change of content. Although one of the original functions of etching is the democratization of images by duplication, thereby reaching a broader demographic audience. My opinion is the western art world now sees intaglio prints as a rarified medium that on the whole only an elite few collect; the general public rarely can recognize its medium. This presents an opportunity to look at the medium in a more free and expansive and manner. Once the idea of intaglio as an egalitarian media is suspect, it allows for a wider acceptance of the potential for each printed image to be unique through presentation, process and composition. Sections of images and modules shift for alternative solutions. Surfaces are protected by the use of varnished paper, allowing the image to move with air currents, creating a different dynamic than the expected format. The image need not be two-dimensional. With the use of multi-layering, unrestricted scale, the use of two or more prints from the same edition to make a single image and folding and creasing the paper, the print can easily be three-dimensional. The undermining and altering of the traditional identity of the intaglio medium rests upon an obsessive fascination I have with the process and its inherent properties. Irreverence for intaglio techniques, customs and protocols that are in my mind allows me new vocabularies for content and form in a traditional medium. The Images on display exhibit challenges to some of my biases towards intaglio subject matter and my own restricted technical approaches. For example, the “The Nude” in the classical idealized sense, I believe, is not a popular subject matter in etching yet I have chosen it many times. Some other elements: embossment, size, pristine paper, sole signatures by artist while omitting those who assist in printing, ironing the image and signatures over the image. These are a few of the factors that in my mind have been taboo.

Spencer Fidler CV