Working in watercolour, drawing, sculpture, photography, and installation, Spencer Finch attempts to faithfully recreate his impressions of natural phenomena and the landscapes that surround him. The artist observes, documents, and studies colour and light effects with scientific precision. He distils his findings into ethereal works—most notably large-scale installations that filter or transform natural light, or create synthetic light effects. With both a scientific approach to gathering data and a true poetic sensibility, Finch’s installations, sculptures and works on paper filter perception through the lens of nature, history, literature and personal experience.
Finch has completed several large-scale public projects notably ‘Trying to remember the color of the sky on that September morning’ at the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City in 2014. He is a recipient of the American Federation of Arts’ Cultural Leadership Award (2014) and his work is held in numerous museum collections.
1. Spencer Finch, Sunlight in an Empty Room, detail, 2004, (Passing Cloud for Emily Dickinson, Amherst, MA, August 28, 2004), Lisson Gallery
2. Spencer Finch, Study for Reflections I, 2021
3. Spencer Finch, Study for Saiph, 2019, Lisson Gallery
4. Spencer Finch, Trying to remember the color of the sky on that September morning (detail). Installation at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Watercolour on paper, 2014
5. The artist Spencer Finch at his studio in Brooklyn. Michael Kirby for New York Times.
