A Series of Juxtapositions
Urs Fischer’s works move between high culture and kitsch, the permanent and the fleeting, the serious and the absurd — often within the same piece. “Spot the Difference,” his first exhibition at Fergus McCaffrey Tokyo, takes its cue from the gallery itself: a finished space upstairs, an unfinished sub-basement below. The split became a way to think about the conscious and unconscious mind.
Upstairs, two life-size wax self-portraits face each other through a roughly cut hole in the wall. Lit on opening day, they are slowly melting over the course of the show before being recast and begun again. Downstairs, Rorschach-like wallpaper of concrete holes and patches wraps the entire space, populated with painted bronze sculptures and drawings.
Born in Zurich in 1973, Fischer lives and works in Los Angeles. The exhibition marks the first showing of his Candle portraits in Japan.
Urs Fischer, “Strangers” (2026). Installation View. Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey
