Gagosian presents Easy Solutions & Problems, an exhibition of new paintings by Urs Fischer at its Gstaad gallery. The show juxtaposes two of Fischer’s ongoing series, the Chumbox paintings, a newly initiated body of work, and his long-running Problem Paintings series, which he has been evolving since 2010. Together, the pieces challenge conventions of image consumption, subverting traditional associations between text and visuals while drawing from the absurdity of internet culture and classic Hollywood iconography.
ART
The Chumbox series takes its name from both a fishing technique and a digital advertising phenomenon. First popularized in 2015 by web designer John Mahoney, the term refers to online clickbait ads that exploit sensationalist imagery and provocative text to lure viewers into dubious content. Fischer adopts this visual language, recreating its disjointed and often misleading pairings in large-scale paintings on aluminum panels. The result is a collection that mimics the chaotic, attention-grabbing nature of online media, exposing the ways in which advertising manipulates perception and desire.
In Easy Solutions & Problems, Fischer positions these chumbox-style paintings alongside his Problem Paintings, allowing their conflicting visual and thematic elements to play off one another. One work features an image of a woman undergoing teeth whitening, captioned with an incomplete phrase: “Seniors: The Cost of Full Mouth.” Another depicts a rodent next to a candle, captioned with the fabricated claim “Easy Trick to Eliminate Mice (2024).” Elsewhere, a split-image painting falsely implies that a disheveled woman is the same person as Laura Dern, reinforcing the absurdity of misinformation. Through these pieces, Fischer highlights the unsettling ways in which digital imagery and advertising construct, and often distort reality.
The Problem Paintings further this exploration, combining classic Hollywood glamour with unexpected visual obstructions. Fischer revisits themes from his 2024 exhibition Beauty, enlarging promotional portraits of Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, and Gene Tierney to monumental proportions. Over these idealized images, he silkscreens oversized floral close-ups, obscuring and reshaping the subjects’ visages. Unlike earlier works in the series, where faces were paired with more jarring overlays, such as kitchen utensils or food items, this iteration takes a more lyrical approach, allowing Fischer’s appreciation for his subjects’ timeless appeal to shine through.
Throughout his career, Fischer has been drawn to visual contradictions and the unpredictable nature of cultural references. His ability to blur the boundaries between high and low art, conceptual precision and chaotic irreverence, makes Easy Solutions & Problems a compelling study of contemporary image consumption. The exhibition suggests that, much like online advertising, art can function as both a tool for organization and a vehicle for disruption, offering viewers a way to navigate, or get lost in, the endless circulation of images.
As Fischer continues to examine the intersections of nostalgia, commercialism, and digital aesthetics, his latest body of work reflects an acute awareness of how modern audiences engage with images. Whether through the disorienting excess of Chumbox or the reimagined elegance of Problem Paintings, Easy Solutions & Problems captures the uneasy interplay between the structured and the chaotic, the familiar and the unexpected.
