Arline Fisch (born 1931) was born in New York City. She learned to sew and weave from her mother and picked up a passion for the color red from her father while growing up in New York. She studied at Skidmore College, receiving her B.S. in Art in 1952. She received her M.A. in Art in 1954 from the University of Illinois. After teaching for two years at Wheaton College, she traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, on a Fulbright Grant to study silversmithing. She has received three additional Fulbright grants, one to conduct further research in Denmark and two to lecture in Austria and Uruguay. She has taught at Wheaton College, Skidmore College, and San Diego State University, where she retired in 2000. She has exhibited extensively all over the world in group shows and solo exhibitions.
Arline Fisch is best known for the way she handles metal in her pieces. Her book, Textile Techniques in Metal for Jewelers, Textile Artists and Sculptors, is a demonstration of the techniques she developed while trying to combine the textures of weaving with a metal material. She works with thin wire to create forms that have been manipulated in similar ways to knitted or braided fabric. She has cited jewelry of ancient cultures as being a continued reference and inspiration for her work.
CSU Award for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity
1986 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
1985 Declared a "Living Treasure of California" by Resolution of California State Assembly
1982 Fulbright Grant, Lecturer, Vienna, Austria
1981 NEA Services to the Field Project Grant
1979 NEA Craftsman's Workshop Grant (Project Director)
1977 NEA Craftsman's Apprentice Grant
1975 National Endowment for the Arts Craftsman's Fellowship
1966 Fulbright Research Grant to Denmark (plus three-month extension)
1956 Fulbright Research Grant
In 2002 an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Skidmore College; in 2006 a fifty thousand dollar fellowship award from United States Artists in support of her creative work; and she is honored by the Fresno Art Museum Council Of 100 as the Distinguished Woman Artist for 2012, for which the exhibition, "In the Garden of Delight: Adornments by Arline Fisch," is a celebration.
Professional
Trustee, American Craft Council, (1994-2000)
Board of Trustees, Haystack Mt, School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine (1973–1982,1991–2000)
President, Society of North American Goldsmiths (1982–1985)
Fellow of the American Crafts Council, Class of 1979
1985 Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, SOLO EXHIBITION
AMERICAN JEWELRY NOW, USIA touring exhibition
"New Tradition: The Evolution of Jewellery 1966–85", British Craft Centre, London
1986 International Jewellery Exhibition, Tokyo, Catalog
"Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical", American Craft Museum, NYC, Catalog
"Perspectives: International Spirit in Jewellery", Basle, Switzerland, Catalog
MacQuarie Galleries, Sydney, Australia SOLO EXHIBITION
1987 "Woven Gold", Concepts Gallery, Carmel, CA SOLO EXHIBITION
"Woven Gold", Electum Gallery, London, SOLO EXHIBITION
1988 "Woven Gold", Galerie am Graben, Vienna, SOLO EXHIBITION
1989 Museum of Fine Arts, Montevideo, Uruguay. SOLO EXHIBITION
"Smykker I Metal: 10 International Jewellers". Copenhagen, DK
"Craft Today USA", USIA exhibition touring Europe. Catalog
1990 "Ornamenta 1" International Jewelry Exhibition, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim. Catalog.
"Woven Gold Spirit Houses" Hand & Spirit, Scottsdale, AZ. SOLO EXHIBITION
1991 "Schmuckszene 91", Munich Handcraft Fair, Germany and Ireland
1992 "Design Vision" International Triennial, Art Gallery of Western Australia
"American Crafts: The Nation's Collection", Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1993 "Lifetime Achievements", Nat. Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis (catalog)
"Contemporary Jewellery", TRIO Exhibition, STUDIO COM Gallery, Kyoto
1994 Fanourakis Gallery, Athens, Greece. SOLO EXHIBITION
"School of Fisch", Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg, Denmark, Catalog
1995 "School of Fisch", DesignYard, Dublin, Ireland
"In Our Hands", 3rd International Competition, Nagoya, Japan
1996 "Textile Techniques, New Work", Connell Gallery, Atlanta, GA SOLO EXHIBITION
"American Revelations", Shipley Gallery, Gateshead, UK, Catalog "New Times, New Thinking: Jewellery in Europe and America", Crafts Council, London
1997 "Celebrating American Craft, 1975–95" Danish Mus. of Decorative Art, Copenhagen
"Portrait of Masters in the Crafts", Int'l Handwork Fair, Munich, Germany. Catalog. "Designed for Delight: Alternative Aspects of 20th C. Decorative Arts", Canada. Catalog "Textile Techniques in Metal", Electrum Gallery, London. SOLO EXHIBITION
1998 "American Metalanguage", Barbican Center, London SOLO EXHIBITION
"Jewellery Moves", National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh
1999 "Fish by Fisch", Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA SOLO EXHIBITION
2000 "Elegant Fantasy: Jewelry by Arline Fisch", SDHistorical Society,SOLO RETROSPECTIVE
"Aluminum by Design:Jewelry to Jets". Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh "Alles Schmuck", Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich "Women Designers in the USA: 1900–2000" Bard Center for Studies in the Dec Arts, NYC
2001 "Elegant Fantasy: The Jewelry of Arline Fisch":, Oakland Museum, CA SOLO
"Elegant Fantasy: The Jewelry of Arline Fisch":, Textile Museum, Washington DC SOLO "BRAID", Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg, DK
2002 "Elegant Fantasy: The Jewelry of Arline Fisch":, American Craft Mus.,NY, SOLO
"Small Works". Longhouse Reserve and MDS Gallery,Tokyo, Curated by Jack Lenor Larsen
2003 "The Art of Arline Fisch", Tang Museum, Skidmore Coll., Saratoga, NY SOLO RETROSPECTIVE
"The Art of California Gold",Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA "The Art of Gold", traveling exhibition organized by SNAG "Boston University's Program in Artisanry", Fuller Museum of Art. Brockton, MA "Planting, Potting and Pruning, Artists and the Cultivated Landscape", Racine Art Museum, WI "Flechten", Handwerks Pflege in Bayern, Munich, Germany "International Showcase", Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK
2004 "Die Danner Rotunde",Schmuck in der Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
"California Design 2004", San Francisco "Master and Student", National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
2005 "Transformations, The Language of Craft", National Gallery of Australia
"Scents of Purpose, Artists Interpret the Spice Box", Cont. Jewish Museum, San Francisco
2008 "Ornament as Expression: The Jewelry of Arline Fisch", Racine Art Museum, August 24, 2008 – December 12, 2008
2008 from August 3, 2008 – July 26, 2009 "Arline Fisch: Creatures from the Deep", Racine Art Museum. Racine, WI