Bio

Alexandra Fischer portrait

 

ALEXANDRA FISCHER

 
Born in 1981 near Cologne, Germany, Alexandra Fischer moved to the Bay Area in 2002. Working with both photography and digital collage, Alex brings a fresh look to the classic rock poster, often seamlessly combining her own work with found images. She creates artwork that references the colorful history of the poster, while having a decidedly modern look.

She has created posters for Moonalice, The Fillmore, The Golden Voice Series, Amsterdam’s Club Paradiso, The California State Fair, etc., and works with several bands and artists locally on various designs and projects. She currently lives and works in her Oakland, CA. studio and holds a BFA in Photography from the California College of the Arts, since 2009.

If someone would have told me a decade ago that I would be married, live in America and make art for a living, I wouldn’t have believed them. “Yeah Right” and a smile would have been my answer. I was born in 1981 in a small town called Moenchengladbach, near Cologne, Germany. Feeling uncertain as to what direction I wanted to take in my life after concluding a high-school experience, which seemed to last an eternity, I decided to take a job as an Au-pair in Geneva, Switzerland for a year.  It turned out to be a life changing decision.

While living in Geneva, I was exposed to various forms of art and was inspired by people I met and the art I saw. Certainly falling into the category of inspirational were Chris Shaw, Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan, whom I met for the first time in the early summer of 2001. The artists were on one of their legendary Europe Poster & Art Show Tours and were exhibiting their work at the “L’Usine” (a bar/art/event space). I remember being visually overwhelmed and instantly captivated, when walking into the large, high-ceiling room for the first time. Posters were strung high and low on wires across the space making the colors of the posters stand out starkly and bold against the grungy and industrial surroundings. That summer I fell in love with 2 things, posters and my now husband Chris Shaw.

In 2002 after working in film production for a year back in Cologne, Germany, I packed 2 (very large) suitcases, took a plane to San Francisco and moved to America. Once here, I started to learn to work with the computer as an art tool, by giving Chris a hand when it got very busy. And so learning by doing is how I made my first poster. At the same time, still photography became a larger passion of mine after moving to the US. At the end of 2008 I graduated from the California College of the Arts with a BFA in photography and extra credits in Film.

Today, I integrate and combine all the tools I have at my disposal and that I enjoy to work with, the computer, my photography, pen & ink and found images to make my poster art. My inspiration for posters comes from music, vintage lithographs & photographs, from pop culture, and simply, by people, events and my surroundings.When I begin work on a poster I sometimes clearly see the poster in my mind before it’s done, but other-times the art grows organically until I see it’s finished. Further, having close professional and personal relationships with fellow (poster) artists around the Bay Area, working on the Moonalice poster series and at the Firehouse / Hangar 18 is inspirational. I think in a creative environment, people feed of each other and the individual work develops. Over the last years my portfolio has grown and includes designs and posters for bands like Jewel, Sharon Jones, Moonalice, Pepper, Social Distortion, Ryan Adams, Flipper, String Cheese Incident, Ani DiFranco, The Waybacks, Cold War Kids, and 7Walkers.

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