Project Native Informant

Hal Fischer

A practice traversing photography, performance, narrative, criticism and curation, Hal Fischer’s work continues to be an inspirational reference for artists today. Through an intense period of experimentation, the artist seized the cultural, political and visual style of a generation of San Francisco gay men between the legalization of homosexuality through the Consenting Adult Sex Bill in 1975 and the eruption of the AIDS pandemic in the early 1980s. Fischer’s three seminal works Gay Semiotics (1977), 18th Near Castro Street (1978) and Boy-Friends (1979), apply the language of structuralism and linguistics, marrying image and text to create works laced with humour and an intentional banality.

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Solo Exhibitions
2024Hal Fischer: Unseen, Et Al, San Francisco
2021Hal Fischer Photographs: Seriality, Sexuality, Semiotics, Krannert Art Museum, Illinois2019The Gay Seventies, Project Native Informant, LondonGay Semiotics and Other Works, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
18th Near Castro Street / Boy-Friends, Project Native Informant at Art Basel, Basel
2018Inbox: Hal Fischer, Museum of Modern Art, New York2017Gay Semiotics, Project Native Informant, London
2015Hal Fischer: Gay Semiotics, Ratio 3, San Francisco
Situation #8: Hal Fischer: Gay Semiotics 1977/2014, Fotomuseum Wintherur, Wintherur
Hal Fischer: Gay Semiotics, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles
1980Hal Fischer, New Image Gallery, James Madison University, Harrisonburg
Sommerpause – European Snapshots, ASUC Studio, University of California, Berkeley
1979Photo-Narratives, Lawson de Celle Gallery, San Francisco
1977Photospectus, Reading Museum of Art, Reading, Pennsylvania
Hal Fischer, Lawson de Celle Gallery, San Francisco
Group Exhibitions
2024Photography and Language: Collection 1950 - 1970s, MoMA, New York2023PNI @ 10, Project Native Informant, London
2022In Focus: Writing for the Camera, Getty Center, Los Angeles
2021Language, Sequence, Structure: Photographic Works by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Hal Fischer, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, FOMU, Antwerp
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, LUMA Foundation, Arles
2020Language, Sequence, Structure: Photographic Works by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Hal Fischer, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover
TITAN, Kurimanzutto, New York
Manifesta 13 | Les Parallèles du Sud, Furiosa Studio, Monaco
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, Gropius Bau, Berlin
Reading Pictures, The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley
Direct Message: Art, Language, and Power, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography, Barbican Art Gallery, LondonThought Pieces: 1970s Photographs of Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips and Hal Fischer, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
2019American Art Since 1948, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign
Masculinities, Bonner Kunstverein, Kölnischem Kunstverein und Kunstverein für die Rheinlande and the Westfalen, Düsseldorf
CAMP: Notes on Fashion, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Art After Stonewall 1969 - 1989, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, New York
West by Midwest, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
201825 Years! Shared Histories, Shared Stories, Fotomuseum Wintherur, Wintherur
Putting Out, Gavin Brown Enterprise, New York
2017Historias Da Sexualidade, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo
2015Richard Wright: Nine Chains To The Moon (Chapter 3), BQ, Berlin
2011Under the Big Black Sun, California Art 1974-1981, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
1984Photography in California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
1981Photographs and Words: An Exhibition, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
1980San Francisco Imprint: Photographic Projects, Franklin Furnace, New York
1979Hal Fischer, Donna-Lee Phillips, Meyer Hirsch, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington DC
Problematic Photography, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo
Attitudes: Photography in the 1970s, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara
The Photographic Billboard Show, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
1978Contemporary California Photography, Buffalo State University, Buffalo
Contemporary California Photography, Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco
Postcard Show, Tyson Gallery, San Francisco
1977Photo-Linguists, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara
Photoerotica, Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco
1976Photography and Language, La Mamelle, San Francisco
New Photographics, Central Washington State University, Ellensburg
Alternative Processes, Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco
Publications
2019The Gay Seventies, Gallery16 Press, San Francisco
197918th near Castro Street x 24, NFS Press, San Francisco
1978Gay Semiotics, NFS Press, San Francisco
Public Collections
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Krannert Art Museum, Champaign
Loeb Art Center, Vassar
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, New York
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Verbund Collection, Vienna

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Gay Semiotics, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Hal Fischer

Handkerchiefs from the series Gay Semiotics

1977 printed 2014
24 carbon pigment prints
Each Print: 50.8 x 40.5 cm, 20 × 16 in

Hal Fischer

Keys from the series Gay Semiotics

1977 printed 2014
24 carbon pigment prints
Each Print: 50.8 x 40.5 cm, 20 × 16 in

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Thought Pieces: 1970s Photographs by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Hal Fischer, 2020
SFMOMA, San Francisco

Hal Fischer

Signifiers for a Male Response from the series Gay Semiotics

1977 printed 2014
24 carbon pigment prints
Each Print: 50.8 x 40.5 cm, 20 × 16 in

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Gay Semiotics, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Gay Semiotics, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Hal Fischer

Submission from the series Gay Semiotics

1977 printed 2014
24 carbon pigment prints
Each Print: 50.8 x 40.5 cm, 20 × 16 in

Installation View

Hal Fischer
The Gay Seventies, 2019
Project Native Informant, London

Hal Fischer

2pm from the series 18th Near Castro Street x 24

1978 printed 2018
24 carbon pigment prints
Each print: 50.8 x 40.6 cm, 20 × 16 in

Hal Fischer

7pm from the series 18th Near Castro Street x 24

1978 printed 2018
24 carbon pigment prints
Each print: 50.8 x 40.6 cm, 20 × 16 in

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Thought Pieces: 1970s Photographs by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Hal Fischer, 2020
SFMOMA, San Francisco

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Gay Semiotics, 2017
Project Native Informant, London

Installation View

Hal Fischer
A Salesman, 1979
San Francisco, USA

Installation View

Hal Fishcer
Masculinities, 2020
Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Art Basel: Feature, 2019
Basel, Switzerland

Hal Fischer

The Punk Poet from the series Boy-Friends

1979 printed 2016
10 carbon pigment print pairs
Each Print: 20 × 25.4 cm, 8 × 10 in

Hal Fischer

The Waiter from the series Boy-Friends

1979 printed 2016
10 carbon pigment print pairs
Each Print: 20 × 25.4 cm, 8 × 10 in

Installation View

Hal Fischer
Thought Pieces: 1970s Photographs by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Hal Fischer, 2020
SFMOMA, San Francisco

Installation View

Hal Fischer
TITAN, 2020
New York

Installation View

Hal Fischer
TITAN, 2020
New York

Installation View

Hal Fischer
The Gay Seventies, 2019
Project Native Informant, London

Hal Fischer

Cheap Chic Homo

1979 printed 2019
Carbon pigment print, framed
Each Framed: 41 x 33 x 3 cm
16 1/8 x 13 x 1 1/8 in

Hal Fischer

Cheap Chic Homo

1979 printed 2019
Carbon pigment print, framed
Each Framed: 41 x 33 x 3 cm
16 1/8 x 13 x 1 1/8 in

Installation View

Hal Fischer
The Gay Seventies, 2019
Project Native Informant, London

Hal Fischer

Civic Center

1979 printed 2019
Carbon pigment print, framed
Each Framed: 47.5 x 57.5 x 2.7 cm
18 3/4 x 22 5/8 x 1 1/8 in

Group Shows

Hal Fischer, Morag Keil

Maskulinitäten

Bonner Kunstverein, Kölnischer Kunstverein and Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Hal Fischer

CAMP: Notes on Fashion

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Hal Fischer

Inbox: Hal Fischer

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Hal Fischer

Thought Pieces: 1970s Photographs by Lew Thomas, Donna-Lee Phillips and Hal Fischer

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

Hal Fischer

Masculinities: Liberation through Photography

Barbican Art Gallery, London

DIS, Flo Brooks, Hal Fischer, Harumi Yamaguchi, ...

LISTE 2018

LISTE, Basel

Units 1 and 3
48 Three Colts Lane
London E2 6GQ
United Kingdom

write@projectnativeinformant.com+44-20-8133-8887

Wednesday - Saturday
12:00 - 18:00

On the occasion of Frieze London, Project Native Informant will be open for extended hours: 

Sunday 6 October (East End Day): 11:00 - 18:00

Monday 7 - Saturday 12 October: 12:00 - 18:00