Kurt Fisk
Since the 1970s, Kurt Fisk has been creating and archiving character-driven illustrations that delight and intrigue. Fisk excels at capturing complex emotions with humor and sensitivity. Employing his fine-tipped artist pens and eye for color, he is able to depict the slightest nuances of otherwise-ordinary exchanges.
Fisk finds inspiration in pop culture and kitschy cult horror films of the 1960s and 1970s. His Original Sea Monkey Fishes is a series of illustrations, sculptures, and a short animated film which he crafted in response to the novelty Sea Monkeys starter zoos. The world Fisk created in Original Sea Monkey Fishes is fun, intricate, and offbeat: Kurt Fisk’s work is worthy of a cult following all its own.
Kaitlyn Wittig Mengüç
Since the 1970s, Kurt Fisk has been creating and archiving character-driven illustrations that delight and intrigue. Fisk excels at capturing complex emotions with humor and sensitivity. Employing his fine-tipped artist pens and eye for color, he is able to depict the slightest nuances of otherwise-ordinary exchanges.
Fisk finds inspiration in pop culture and kitschy cult horror films of the 1960s and 1970s. His Original Sea Monkey Fishes is a series of illustrations, sculptures, and a short animated film which he crafted in response to the novelty Sea Monkeys starter zoos. The world Fisk created in Original Sea Monkey Fishes is fun, intricate, and offbeat: Kurt Fisk’s work is worthy of a cult following all its own.
Kaitlyn Wittig Mengüç
Kurt Fisk's Monkey Fishes by Patrick Collier
What took you so long? The Creative Journey of Kurt Fisk (BrutForce)
Original Sea Monkey Fishes (animation)
60inchcenter
Observing + Archiving, Kurt Fisk and Jill Baker at the Arts Center (Corvallis)
What took you so long? The Creative Journey of Kurt Fisk (BrutForce)
Original Sea Monkey Fishes (animation)
60inchcenter
Observing + Archiving, Kurt Fisk and Jill Baker at the Arts Center (Corvallis)
Kurt Fisk @ his Portland Art Museum opening
Chronology
Lives in Corvallis Oregon
Solo Exhibits
"What Took You So Long?" OUTPOST1000 Pop Up, Corvallis OR, October 2014 "Into the Unknown" Prisms Gallery, Salem OR, December 2014
"Kurt Fisk" Community Gallery, OSLP Arts & Culture, Eugene OR, September 2015
Group Exhibits
"WE.CONSTRUCT.MARVELS.BETWEEN.MONUMENTS
Portland Art Museum Portland, OR November 2017-18 (5 Artists) Curated by Libby Werbel
Storming the Academy, Oregon State University (group exhibit) 2018
Salon, Corvallis Arts Center (group exhibit) 2018
"Kurt Fisk" Sculpture ArtWorks (CEI) Gallery, Corvallis, OR October 2016
"Kurt Fisk" Corrine Woodman Gallery, Corvallis OR, July 2016
"Paradise" (Ugly Art Room) Poptart, Corvallis OR, November 2015
"I am" Corvallis Arts Center, Corvallis OR, March 2015
"Comedy" The Majestic Theater, Corvallis OR, August 2015
Publications
"Kurt Fisk’s Monkey Fishes" by Patrick Collier Oregon Visual Ecology Project, 2017
"Constructing Marvels, Breaking Barriers: We. at the Portland Art Museum", Lusi Lukova 60inchcenter 2/18
"What Took You So Long? The Creative Journey of Kurt Fisk" BrutForce, November 2015
"This is what I am doing with these hands" Quickest Flip, August 2014
"Into the unknown, old work and new work" Tom Mayhall Restrelli, The Statesman Journal, Salem OR, December 2014
Lives in Corvallis Oregon
Solo Exhibits
"What Took You So Long?" OUTPOST1000 Pop Up, Corvallis OR, October 2014 "Into the Unknown" Prisms Gallery, Salem OR, December 2014
"Kurt Fisk" Community Gallery, OSLP Arts & Culture, Eugene OR, September 2015
Group Exhibits
"WE.CONSTRUCT.MARVELS.BETWEEN.MONUMENTS
Portland Art Museum Portland, OR November 2017-18 (5 Artists) Curated by Libby Werbel
Storming the Academy, Oregon State University (group exhibit) 2018
Salon, Corvallis Arts Center (group exhibit) 2018
"Kurt Fisk" Sculpture ArtWorks (CEI) Gallery, Corvallis, OR October 2016
"Kurt Fisk" Corrine Woodman Gallery, Corvallis OR, July 2016
"Paradise" (Ugly Art Room) Poptart, Corvallis OR, November 2015
"I am" Corvallis Arts Center, Corvallis OR, March 2015
"Comedy" The Majestic Theater, Corvallis OR, August 2015
Publications
"Kurt Fisk’s Monkey Fishes" by Patrick Collier Oregon Visual Ecology Project, 2017
"Constructing Marvels, Breaking Barriers: We. at the Portland Art Museum", Lusi Lukova 60inchcenter 2/18
"What Took You So Long? The Creative Journey of Kurt Fisk" BrutForce, November 2015
"This is what I am doing with these hands" Quickest Flip, August 2014
"Into the unknown, old work and new work" Tom Mayhall Restrelli, The Statesman Journal, Salem OR, December 2014
What Took You So Long? The Creative Journey of Kurt Fisk
BRUTFORCESince the early 1970s, Kurt Fisk has been creating fantastical, character-driven illustrations. His characters, much like those on a beloved Saturday morning cartoon, inhabit a world which is entirely their own. Fisk excels at capturing complex emotions with humor and sensitivity. Employing his array of fine-tipped artist pens and eye for color, he depicts the slightest nuances of otherwise-ordinary exchanges.
Fisk finds inspiration in pop culture and kitschy cult horror films of the 1960s and 1970s. For over twenty years, however, much of the work Fisk made was created in response to an infamous cartoon advertisement from 1971 hawking “Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys.” These outrageous ads trumpeted, “The most adorable, entertaining pets you have ever owned.” They were hard to resist.
Recalling the arrival of his own mail-order Sea Monkeys, Fisk reflected, “Those shrimp weren’t the ones in the comic’s ad; they were plain old brine shrimp. So I took the comic book drawing and began to rearrange it, making it my own, changing the name to The Monkey Fishes.”
Fisk’s sea monkey series was featured prominently in his first solo exhibition. Curated by OUTPOST1000, “WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG? The Art of Kurt Fisk” (2014) was a pop-up, retrospective exhibition at a cozy, second-hand furniture store in Corvallis, Oregon. One corner of the exhibition sought to recreate Fisk’s bedroom with a focus on the exhaustive archive he has generated: illustrations in familiar frames were placed around the mock-bedroom, decades of sketches were neatly archived in binders on the desk, homemade promotional posters hung on the walls, and nearby bookshelves showcased sculptures of the monkey fishes.
While episodic comic books serve as one of many pop cultural references for Fisk, his own comic illustrations rarely exceed one panel. Though brief, these comics are complete in their singularity. The work often alludes to resolution. Almost antithetical to his comic panels, Fisk’s animated film, The Original Sea Monkey Fishes, consists of thousands of individual drawings. Fisk received no formal training in filmmaking and his only instruction came from reading the catalogs accompanying film products from Bell & Howell and Kodak. Upon completion, Fisk optimistically packaged reels of the film with publicity materials including movie posters, comics, t-shirts, and a press release. Though Fisk found few takers, he continued to make new work to share with others.
An artist herself, Fisk’s mother Sarah has always encouraged his creative impulses and Fisk excelled at art in school. Fisk is quick to recall the critical role that arts education played during his youth, “At my school, I was a handicapped person and I went to Special Ed classes. I didn’t have a choice as regular class was so hard for me. The art class was good, it was not Special Ed. After 3 years I came out knowing how to paint and draw pretty well.”
After high school, Fisk was briefly enrolled in an institutional care facility, which was in stark contrast to the nurturing atmosphere of home. “I had most of my best things stolen, it was a rough place so I couldn’t stay.” Fisk moved back home with his mother where he remains today.
At the age of 56, Fisk had waited over 40 years to share his work in a gallery setting. WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG, he told me, “is about letting them know that this is what I do.” During the opening Fisk readily mingled among appreciative friends and fans who applauded his imaginative fabrications. Speaking of The Original Sea Monkey Fishes, Julia Bradshaw, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Communications at Oregon State University noted, “After watching Fisk’s animated film I was struck by the depth of filmic problem-solving and character development that went into creating it. The pleasure in the film is partly in deconstructing the animation techniques, but more importantly it is the depth of storytelling and the variety of tenuous situations that the Professor and the Sea Monkey Fishes found themselves in that kept my attention. I wanted to know what would happen next.”
Kurt Fisk at home with a page of character sketches.
Over the past year, Fisk has exhibited in four solo exhibitions and a group exhibition throughout Corvallis, Eugene, and Salem, Oregon. He has also served as a panel member for lunchtime discussion series at The Arts Center and for a discussion on arts and disability in conjunction with the inVISIBLE festival, both in Corvallis Oregon. “I have been making my artwork since 1971,” Fisk says. “It’s time for people to see what kind of talent I have. I want to say this is what I am doing with these hands.”