Urs Fischer

Urs Fischer is not Matthew Barney. The autonomous, if decidedly lo-fi, objects Fischer crafts are the very antitheses of the spectacular "sets" Barney creates to further his self-generated mythology. Barney's practice literally trades in high production values: He typically fabricates secondary objects to finance the film extravaganzas that ultimately provide the narrative context on which his metasculptures depend. Fischer, on the contrary, is a "sculptor's sculptor," minus the backward-looking baggage the notion suggests. Like Dieter Roth, Franz West, Charles Ray, and Paul Thek, Fischer is firmly invested in a sculptural tradition without being traditional.

Fischer, who was born, …