Anna Fidler
I paint moments that are for me, transformative and ecstatic. I make topographic forms from layers of paper. Each multi-media painting captures a distinct narrative about the force emitted from a person or place.
I believe that people are energy and that our actions have auras. I paint trees as doors to other worlds. I want people to have a way in—to experience this energy—the kind you can’t see, but can feel.
The light in my studio is spiritual when it shines on my painting table. When I am there, I am clear and can see. I am a conduit for energy; sometimes I feel telepathic. Topographic people are ghosts and memories. Glowing silhouettes, flickering shadows and sunlight are my subjects that both compel and make me feel alive.
My paintings belong in wilderness, where my ideas grow from creeks and trees, from people and houses. Washes of paint, mica-enriched dark spatters, repeated circles emanating from trees and water—this is how I describe my experience of the natural world, where a figure could be a plant—she is a part of the landscape—I do not make a distinction.
I visit the Willamette River, where I have seen women dressed as witches float by on stand-up paddle boards. These women are revolutionaries that exist to teach us about survival.
I paint feminists– Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Isadora Duncan—those who have influenced the way we think, write, and move, those with radiant energy that pushes the world forward, those with vision to help reshape the world.
Matte gouache brushstrokes, repeated dots, meditative glue and cut, glowing pastel waves—these are my tools for change.
Anna Fidler (b. 1973, Traverse City, Michigan) lives in Corvallis, Oregon where she teaches studio art at Oregon State University. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, in 1995 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in studio art from Portland State University in 2005. Fidler has had solo exhibitions at The Boise Art Museum, APEX at The Portland Art Museum, Johansson Projects in Oakland, Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Oregon, Disjecta, Portland, Oregon, and has been widely exhibited at such venues as The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art, The University of Southern California, The Tacoma Art Museum and The Sun Valley Center for the Arts. Her exhibitions have been reviewed in publications such as Art in America, The Washington Post, The Oregonian and The San Francisco Chronicle. Grants and awards include an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship, a Regional Arts and Culture Council Project Grant, and residencies at Painting’s Edge in Idyllwild, California and The Sun Valley Center for the Arts. Her work is held in the collections of The Portland Art Museum, The Boise Art Museum, Portland Portable Works Collection and Seattle Portable Works Collection. Fidler is represented by Charles A. Hartman Fine Art in Portland and Johansson Projects in Oakland.
NYTIMES / SF ARTS MONTHLY, “Gallery Highlights”, March 2019, Christian L Frock
“In Her Kind” Anna Fidler + Cathy Lu…seem to declare a new world order where feminists call the shots…”
Cascade A&E, “At liberty New Exhibition: Anna Fidler: Vampires & Wolfmen”, May 1, 2018
“The legend of the vampire is of particular interest to me due to the subject’s innate romanticism fused with a form of energy exchange—in this case the transference of life from one being to another,” says artist Fidler.” Link
San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate “Artists, layered work seemed a good match at Johansson” December 23, 2015 Kimberly Chun
“a simpatico relationship that manifested in more ways than one” Link
Broke-Ass Stuart “Art Gallery You Should Know: Johansson Projects” November 5, 2015 Marilyn Jones
“Inspired by rituals and dream, Fidler captures a boundary between this world and where others could easily be crossed, in her energetic gouache paintings.” Link
In The Make “Anna Fidler” May 2014
“I am most inspired by strange and visionary worlds… ” Link
Springfield Times “Anna Fidler Displays at Museum” April 19, 2013 Darcy Wallace
“the invisible yet tangible process of plant photosynthesis inspired her to explore the types of energy present on earth” Link
East Bay Express “Anna Fidler’s Vampire Culture” July 18, 2012 Alex Bigman
“Fidler’s recurring statements about portrait representation and implied narrative, icon and spectacle, with clarity and verve in all the places where the Trail Blazers series dropped the ball” Link
Art in America “Anna Fidler” June 4, 2010 Sue Taylor
“Anna Fidler established a presence in Portland over a decade ago with fanciful abstract paintings and cut-paper collages inspired by forms in nature” Link
The Oregonian “Anna Fidler’s Full Court Concept” December 4, 2009 Chas Bowie
“Fidler takes her subject beyond the discourse of movement and athleticism, treating basketball as an ebullient ritual played out on levels both mystical and cellular” Link
San Francisco Chronicle “Don’t Miss: Portals” May 15, 2008 Mary Eisenhart
“It’s all about gateways to the unknown in this mystically tinged collection of paper-based works… Anna Fidler’s paintings and Jana Flynn’s mutlimedia creations chart deamlike landscapes.” Link
Fiber Arts “Energy and Mass” 2009 Bean Gilford
Artweek “Portals’ at Johansson Projects” July/August 2008 Barbara Morris
Flavor-Pill ‘“Portals: Jen Stark, Anna Fidler, and Jana Flynn” May 8, 2008 Jeanne Storck
Artweek “Mistique: New Works on Paper by Anna Fidler” September/October 2007 Prudence Roberts
The Wall Street Journal “Small Collectors” September 14, 2007 Kelly Crow
Savoir Magazine “Anna Fidler” January 2007 Mikael Jehanno
Artweek “2006 Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum” October 2006 Daniel Duford
New American Paintings “Pacific Coast Edition” 2005 Link
Artweek “2001 Oregon Biennial at the Portland Art Museum” July/August 2001 Lois Allan
The Oregonian “The Oregon Biennial: Not the Usual Suspects” May 1, 2001 Bob Hicks
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