Statement:

My current work explores the image of raw meat as a portrait of the self and as a symbol of the coarse and primitive aspects of our humanness - particularly our aggression. On a formal and sensory level, I am taken by meat's tactility, color, volume and texture. I am aware of the bloodiness and violence that is part of its story and struck by the paradox of meat's final resting place in a banal plastic package at the grocery. I have responded with a still-life depiction that is equally inert and passive. This strikes me as a metaphor for our human struggle to contain, package, and often deny our most primitive impulses, with a risk that what is most deeply felt will be transformed into mundane or thoughtless action. In my painting, I strive to imbue my materials, the inert substances of the paint, with these pent-up energies and emotions to make meaning of this struggle.

Anthony Fisher received his BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and his MFA from Yale University School of Art. He teaches at The School of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and has been a visiting lecturer of Painting and Drawing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth since 1992.