Phoenix Art Museum partners with Phoenix College to host 2025 Eric Fischl Series featuring artist Eric Fischl

Mar, 19, 2025

Special Events and Programs

Phoenix Art Museum partners with Phoenix College to host 2025 Eric Fischl Series featuring artist Eric Fischl

The evening includes an exhibition of artwork by Phoenix College students, the Vanguard Awards presentation, and a conversation between Fischl and special guest Eleanor Nairne

PHOENIX (March 19, 2025) – This spring, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) hosts the 2025 Eric Fischl Series in partnership with Phoenix College (PC) and featuring the event’s namesake—contemporary painter, sculptor, author, and PC alumnus Eric Fischl. The event includes a student art exhibition in Cummings Great Hall, followed by the Vanguard Awards presentation and a conversation between Eric Fischl and special guest Eleanor Nairne, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, in Whiteman Hall. Fischl and Nairne will discuss his new works including Bathers, a series of large-scale, hand-painted bronze sculptures derived from virtual reality paintings. The 2025 Eric Fischl series will be hosted on Wednesday, April 2, 2025 from 7:30 – 8:30 pm. Tickets are $5 for the public and free for Museum Members and are available here. Tickets are free for Maricopa County Community College students with an active ID.

“As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the program, Phoenix Art Museum, in partnership with Phoenix College, is thrilled to turn the spotlight on the namesake artist for this year’s Eric Fischl Lecture,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “In conversation with Eleanor Nairne, the Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator and Head of Modern and Contemporary Art at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eric Fischl’s impact is not confined to his field, but resonates throughout the larger Phoenix Metro Region and its arts community, the very place where his artistic journey began. In addition to this program, we are honored to announce the premiere of a new exhibition of his work later this year. This major survey, the first in over a decade to focus on Fischl’s work, is eagerly anticipated, and we look forward to sharing more details in the coming weeks.”

Born in New York City in 1948, Eric Fischl grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. He began his art education in Phoenix and attended Phoenix College, later earning his B.F.A. from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972. After spending time in Chicago, where he worked as a guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to teach painting at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Fischl had his first solo exhibition there before relocating to New York City in 1978. Fischl’s suburban upbringing provided him with a view into a world of alcoholism and a country club culture obsessed with image over content. His early work focuses on the rift between what was experienced and what could not be said. His first New York City solo exhibition was at Edward Thorp Gallery in 1979, during a time when suburbia was not considered a legitimate genre for art. He received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream American life. An internationally acclaimed American painter and sculptor, Fischl’s artwork is represented in many distinguished museums throughout the world and has been featured in more than 1,000 publications.

In Fischl’s current practice, he has started experimenting in virtual reality, producing a series of paintings inspired by his acclaimed beach scenes using the Google Tillt Brush application. Suspended in a three-dimensional space, Fischl’s brushstrokes were ‘tissues of colour’ that collectively formed a scene, allowing for additions and subtractions to the composition with the click of a button. The files were then translated into bronze sculptures through a pioneering process involving 3D printing the images into sections, painting wax to mimic the texture of paint, casting the parts in bronze, and then welding the artwork back together.

Fischl will appear in dialogue with Eleanor Nairne. Currently theKeith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Nairne previously served as the Senior Curator at Barbican Art Gallery in London, where she curated many of the gallery’s best-attended and most critically acclaimed exhibitions, including Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle (2023), Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel (2022), Lee Krasner: Living Colour (2019), and Basquiat: Boom for Real (2017). Before joining Barbican, Nairne was the curator of the Artangel Collection at Tate, where she organized more than 30 exhibitions and installations across the United Kingdom. In 2021, she was the guest curator for Eva Hesse / Hannah Wilke: Erotic Abstraction (2021) at Acquavella Galleries in New York and edited the accompanying publication. This exhibition was the first to pair the groundbreaking work of the two feminist post-minimalist sculptors Eva Hesse and Hannah Wilke and was selected by Frieze as one of the top 10 U.S. exhibitions of 2021. Nairne received an MA in History of Art from Courtauld Institute of Art in 2010 and a BA in Modern History from Oxford University in 2008. She is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, as well as The New York Times, among others.

The Fischl Lecture on April 2 will begin with an exhibition of artwork by Phoenix College students on view in the Museum’s Cummings Great Hall South. As part of the 2025 Eric Fischl Series, Fischl will also present the prestigious Vanguard Awards to students whose works are selected as “Best in Show” from pieces submitted to the annual exhibition. Fischl created the Vanguard Award in 2005 to recognize emerging student talent in the fine arts, establish Phoenix College as a center for the arts in downtown Phoenix, and create life-changing opportunities for students. Recipients of the award receive $2,500. To date, more than 67 students have been presented with the Vanguard Award.

The evening will close with an engaging conversation between Fischl and Nairne in Whiteman Hall, during which visitors will learn about Fischl’s new works including Bathers, a series of large-scale, hand-painted bronze sculptures derived from virtual reality paintings.

Through the Maricopa County Community Colleges District (MCCCD) program at Phoenix Art Museum, tickets to the Eric Fischl Lecture are free for all MCCCD students who attend any of the 10 colleges or affiliated skill centers. An active student ID is required at check-in and time of purchase. Through the MCCCD program, MCCCD students also enjoy free access to PhxArt, including special-engagement exhibitions, made possible through the generosity of Men’s Arts Council.

For more information, high-resolution photography, or a copy of this news release in Spanish, contact the Communications Office at 602.257.2117 or samantha.santos@phxart.org.

About Phoenix Art Museum
Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) has engaged millions of visitors with the art of our region and world. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, PhxArt creates spaces of exchange and belonging for all audiences through dynamic exhibitions, collections, and experiences with art. Each year, 300,000 guests on average engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 21,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern, and contemporary art and fashion design, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. PhxArt also presents live performances, outstanding examples of global cinema, arts-education programs and workshops, an art+music festival, and more for the community. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

About Eric Fischl
Born in New York City in 1948, Eric Fischl grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. He began his art education in Phoenix and attended Phoenix College, later earning his B.F.A. from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972. After spending time in Chicago, where he worked as a guard at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to teach painting at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Fischl had his first solo exhibition there before relocating to New York City in 1978. Fischl’s suburban upbringing provided him with a backdrop of alcoholism and a country club culture obsessed with image over content. His early work thus became focused on the rift between what was experienced and what could not be said. His first New York City solo exhibition was at Edward Thorp Gallery in 1979, during a time when suburbia was not considered a legitimate genre for art. He received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream American life. An internationally acclaimed American painter and sculptor, Fischl’s artwork is represented in many distinguished museums throughout the world and has been featured in over 1,000 publications. His extraordinary achievements throughout his career have made him one of the most influential figurative painters of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He is a Fellow at both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Science. He lives and works in Sag Harbor, NY, with his wife, the painter April Gornik.

About Eleanor Nairne
Currently theKeith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Nairne previously served as the Senior Curator at Barbican Art Gallery in London, where she curated many of the gallery’s best-attended and most critically acclaimed exhibitions, including Alice Neel: Hot Off The Griddle (2023), Soheila Sokhanvari: Rebel Rebel (2022), Lee Krasner: Living Colour (2019), and Basquiat: Boom for Real (2017). Before joining Barbican, Nairne was the curator of the Artangel Collection at Tate, where she organized more than 30 exhibitions and installations across the United Kingdom. In 2021, she was the guest curator for Eva Hesse / Hannah Wilke: Erotic Abstraction (2021) at Acquavella Galleries in New York and edited the accompanying publication. This exhibition was the first to pair the groundbreaking work of the two feminist post-minimalist sculptors Eva Hesse and Hannah Wilke and was selected by Frieze as one of the top 10 U.S. exhibitions of 2021. Nairne received an MA in History of Art from Courtauld Institute of Art in 2010 and a BA in Modern History from Oxford University in 2008. She is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, as well as The New York Times, among others.

About Phoenix College
Phoenix College is the flagship of the Maricopa County Community College District, one of the largest community college districts in the nation. Established in 1920, PC offers academic courses leading to associate degrees, university transfer, certificates and short-term job training.

The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) is an EEO/AA institution and an equal opportunity employer of protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, or national origin. A lack of English language skills will not be a barrier to admission and participation in the career and technical education programs of the District. The Maricopa County Community College District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability or age in its programs or activities. For Title IX/504 concerns, call the following number to reach the appointed coordinator: (480) 731-8499. For additional information, as well as a listing of all coordinators within the Maricopa College system, maricopa.edu/non-discrimination.