VM Fisk

VM FISK

VM FISK

Thought Traps and Mind Mazes

VM Fisk

Thought Traps and Mind Mazes

With Thought Traps and Mind Mazes, interdisciplinary artist VM Fisk (Richmond, VA) presents a series of vibrant new works that explore a range of media. Born out of a period of intense self-discovery following a diagnosis of adult attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), these abstract works acknowledge and embody aspects of Fisk’s mental and artistic processes. Each piece is simultaneously an illustration of a thought process and a cathartic meditation, as the artist engages with sense-making through her studio practice and interrogates the ways in which her mind operates.

Here, Thought Traps and Mind Mazes offers a window into the ways Fisk is working through, and working with, nuerodivergency. By combining various geometric forms with saturated color palettes, the artist evokes a wide array of cognitive maps tinted with emotion. These works trace out the pattern-making and connectionseeking tendencies of their creator’s mind, and draw attention to both a literally and figuratively skewed perspective inherent within the artwork. Fisk’s bold use of color and rhythmic quality of line signal energy and activity within these works, while the structures of cut panel and paper substrates communicate both physical and visual weight throughout the series.

Functioning as stand-ins for her mental processes, Fisk’s works reflect the earnestness and messiness associated with the artist’s ADHD. Even while acting as, and illustrating, meditative practices, these works communicate a flurry of action and urgency. What appear to be finely finished and exacting compositions are revealed to be imperfect approximations when the works are examined up close. These imperfections — errant brushstrokes, raised seams, uneven layers — reveal the history of the making, the actions Fisk has undertaken to produce her visions. Ultimately, this leads viewers to understand that the process of working, of laboring with both the physical and metaphysical elements of being, is central to the essence of the work itself.

Opposite Page: RBG18, 2021 (p. 32 - 33)

VM

CV Education

New York Film Academy, Film and Media Studies, Los Angeles, CA

Virginia Commonwealth University, Sculpture and Extended Media, Richmond, VA California Institute of the Arts, Fine Art, Valencia, CA

Exhibitions

2021 Good Will, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2019 Glean, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2018 Teeny Tiny Trifecta, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

What Everything is Made Of, Welcome Gallery, Charlottesville, VA (solo) New City Artist Exchange, Welcome Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

2016 vm fisk, Austin Bouldering Project, Austin, TX (solo)

2015 Semi-Order, Proper, Austin, TX (solo)

Art + Tequila, Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX

2014 Herradura Tequila Barrel Art Collection, Brazos Hall, Austin, TX

2009 Juried Student Fine Arts Exhibition, Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA

2007 Performance Art, Armory Center for the Arts NW, Pasadena, CA CalArts School of Fish Collaborative Art Show, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA Lies and Confessions (CalArts), California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA

Awards

2014 Herradura Barrel Art Collection, Regional Winner, Austin, TX

Collections

Mexic-arte Museum Permanent Collection, Austin, TX

Publications

Keswick Life, “On Exhibit, What Everything is Made Of,” January 2018

Tribeza Arts + Culture, “TRIBEZA’S 10 TO WATCH 2015 | VM FISK,” Tribeza People Issue, Dec 2015

Arden Ward, “Austin’s Mexic-Arte Museum makes a splash with Art + Tequila celebration,” -CultureMap Austin, (Society Blog). July 27, 2015

Rad Austin Magazine, “Herradura Tequila Barrel Art Creation,” Featured Local Artists, radaustinmagazine.com, February 1, 2015.

Vetta Magazine,“Herradura Awards $10,000 to Austin Artist VM Fisk for Tequila Barrel Art Creation,” vettamagazine.com, November 2014

Opposite Page:

Papercut Study #4, 2022

VM FISK

Thought Traps and Mind Mazes

Catalog Design

PAGE BOND GALLERY