“Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock” at the ICA: Louise Fishman and the Language of Abstraction
This post was a finalist in the Artblog + The St. Claire’s 2016 New Art Writing Challenge Contest. Thanks to all those who participated, and to jurors Cara Ober, Meredith Sellers, and Paddy Johnson for selecting the winners.
Exploring “Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock” at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia meant entering a world where scale, material, and process constantly challenged expectations. The exhibition brought together paintings made on carpet samples, abstractions developed on rusted metal surfaces and scraps, and tiny sculptures covered in pigment or plaster and carefully held together with wire.
Alongside the smaller works were large abstract paintings on the wall, a more familiar presentation for abstraction. Yet the exhibition refused to establish a hierarchy between large and small. Tiny paintings, some barely larger than postage stamps, demanded as much attention as the monumental canvases. Pieces of missing canvas, pencil grids, accordion books, cardboard, carpet, and other unconventional materials all became important parts of Louise Fishman’s visual language.
Louise Fishman and the Power of Scale
Size often creates competition in contemporary art exhibitions. Larger works naturally command attention, while smaller pieces can become secondary objects that viewers pass by quickly. In this exhibition, however, those familiar relationships seemed to disappear.
Holes drilled into the sides of display structures created intimate frames around small Fishman sculptures covered in paint. The installation encouraged visitors to stop and look closely rather than treating the smaller works as peripheral objects.
Bright colors appeared in carefully arranged swatches, while aggressive brushstrokes erupted across different surfaces. The result was both quiet and loud at once. The exhibition created a rhythm in which intimate, fragile objects could possess the same visual authority as much larger paintings.
The Importance of Process in Fishman’s Work
One of the most compelling aspects of the exhibition was its emphasis on artistic process. The installation included studio objects, wooden stools, sculptures, scraps, and other materials that suggested the physical environment in which paintings and objects are created.
This approach challenged the conventional distinction between valuable artistic materials and discarded objects. Cardboard and old carpet samples were not treated as inferior to paper or canvas. Instead, they became surfaces capable of holding paint, pigment, marks, and ideas.
Fishman’s work demonstrates how abstraction can emerge from almost any material. Staples, fragments of canvas, watercolor, pencil grids, pigment, and paint all become part of the same visual vocabulary. The material itself remains visible, allowing viewers to recognize the physical labor involved in making the work.
Abstraction, Feminism, and the Art World
The exhibition also placed Louise Fishman’s work within a larger history of gender and abstraction. Fishman developed her artistic voice in an art world dominated by men, at a time when assumptions about scale, materials, abstraction, and artistic authority were strongly influenced by gender.
Her work cannot be separated completely from the cultural debates surrounding women’s work, feminism, and artistic identity. The exhibition materials discussed Fishman’s relationship to what had traditionally been categorized as “women’s work,” as well as her involvement with feminism and the fight for gay rights.
Seen from the perspective of contemporary art, these historical boundaries have become less rigid. Artists working with abstraction and unconventional materials helped expand the possibilities available to later generations. Fishman’s career is therefore part of a broader transformation in which artists challenged assumptions about who could make important work and what that work could look like.
Materials, Memory, and the Physical Act of Painting
Walking through the exhibition a second time changes the experience. Small paintings become increasingly significant, while the larger canvases reveal a different kind of physical intensity.
Fishman’s paper books and smaller works make the artist’s hand particularly visible. Staples hold fragile sections together. Watercolor and pigment move around delicate grids. Other surfaces contain broad, energetic brushstrokes that appear almost physical in their force.
The contrast between fragile materials and powerful gestures creates much of the tension in Fishman’s work. Paper can become substantial. A piece of cardboard can become a painting surface. A small sculpture can command the same attention as a large canvas.
Louise Fishman and Philadelphia’s Contemporary Art Scene
The exhibition also offers a useful perspective on Philadelphia’s contemporary art scene. Institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art provide a space where established artistic histories can be reconsidered through contemporary exhibitions and critical writing.
“Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock” demonstrates how an exhibition can connect personal artistic process with larger questions about gender, material, history, and abstraction. Rather than presenting Fishman’s work as a fixed historical achievement, the exhibition invites viewers to reconsider the boundaries that shaped its development.
Ultimately, the experience is about paying attention. The small paintings deserve the same concentration as the large canvases. Ordinary materials deserve the same consideration as traditional art surfaces. And the history surrounding abstraction continues to reveal tensions that remain relevant to contemporary artists.
You move through the exhibition again, looking at the small things and the large ones, materials that are simultaneously stubborn and fragile, humble and monumental. The physical presence of the artist remains visible throughout the work. It is a reminder that abstraction is not only an idea or a visual language, but also the result of hands, materials, decisions, and years of artistic practice.