There is a vital dynamic in Fishman’s work...playful, humorous and curiously innocent...
Marjorie Miller, Writer, Critic, Arts Magazine
Fishman’s paintings are spirited additions to the long tradition of Maine seascape painting.
Suzette McAvoy, Curator, Former Director,
Center for Maine Contemporary Art
Acrylics pulsing with color and motion...
Steven May, Curator, Writer
A master of color...
Deborah Weisgall, Writer
Born and raised in New York City, Alan Fishman has been an artist for more than fifty years. He received a BFA from Cornell University, with further study and years of residence in Italy. Fishman's works are continually exhibited in group and solo exhibitions, and can be found in many collections around the world.
As Steven May wrote in a featured article in Portland Magazine in 2004, “Fishman traces his artistic roots mainly to Europe, citing as examples Klee, Matisse, Monet, and Picasso. And while his art may start with recognizable forms, it primarily reflects his interest in light, movement, color, and abstraction." With a love of color, texture, and form, Fishman’s paintings reflect and refract the natural world, the realm of ancient myth, the tangle of human relationships, and the complexity of the human spirit. His bright acrylic paintings are bold, direct, and filled with a distinctive musical energy. It’s no small coincidence that his work is so often described as lyrical: Alan Fishman is also an accomplished classical musician, who has been playing the piano since the age of five.
Exhibitions of note: University of Virginia, Bronx Museum of Art, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Maine Jewish Museum, as well as many solo shows in galleries in Maine. For five years, Fishman worked on cruise ships around the world, lecturing on art history and creating a series of more than 300 paintings focused on the sea. Sixty of those paintings were selected for the 2018 Biennial exhibition at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art
A Professor Emeritus of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Alan Fishman was also the Founding Director of Polimoda school of fashion and design in Florence, Italy.
As Steven May wrote in a featured article in Portland Magazine in 2004, “Fishman traces his artistic roots mainly to Europe, citing as examples Klee, Matisse, Monet, and Picasso. And while his art may start with recognizable forms, it primarily reflects his interest in light, movement, color, and abstraction." With a love of color, texture, and form, Fishman’s paintings reflect and refract the natural world, the realm of ancient myth, the tangle of human relationships, and the complexity of the human spirit. His bright acrylic paintings are bold, direct, and filled with a distinctive musical energy. It’s no small coincidence that his work is so often described as lyrical: Alan Fishman is also an accomplished classical musician, who has been playing the piano since the age of five.
Exhibitions of note: University of Virginia, Bronx Museum of Art, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Maine Jewish Museum, as well as many solo shows in galleries in Maine. For five years, Fishman worked on cruise ships around the world, lecturing on art history and creating a series of more than 300 paintings focused on the sea. Sixty of those paintings were selected for the 2018 Biennial exhibition at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art
A Professor Emeritus of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Alan Fishman was also the Founding Director of Polimoda school of fashion and design in Florence, Italy.