Urs loves Kippenberger, according to his bumper sticker.

He doesn’t drive though, but he thinks he would be a great driver if he could. Fischer was born in Switzerland as the second child of two doctors. It’s easy to assume he rebelled, went to art school and moved as far away possible just because his parents were such high achievers, but Urs disagrees. He chose the artist life, simply because there were a lot of thing he didn't want to be. Most of all, he just wants to be free. His parents worried about him since he was such a lazy kid. He wasn’t interested in school, but then again who is at that age? At 16 he enrolled in art school to study photography. He loved photography partially because he vowed to NEVER spend his life in studios. Whenever someone told him they wanted to become an artist he’d say “looooser!” Something went wrong there though, since he now has a huge studio in Red Hook Brooklyn. Fair enough he also has plenty of assistants and a cook, so that makes his studio life a bit less of a martyrdom, I guess.

To support himself through art school, Urs worked as bouncer at Zurich nightclubs. Not that nightclubs in Switzerland really need bouncers though, the Swiss in general are very well behaved. Also, according to his friend Scipio Schneider it’s not like Urs really intimidated people. After two years he dropped out of art school, they made him write stuff and do tests and he thought that was bs. Unlike Zurich, Amsterdam in the 90’s was a lively center of contemporary art and artists so of course he moved there. Urs learned English, got a grant to study at a professional art school and met a cute Bavarian girl. Through his girl he began building and eventually designing film sets. It might have helped that his dad rebuilt their hundred-and-sixty-year-old house in his spare time. He taught Urs a thing or two on Swiss carpentry and craftsmanship. From his art school era, everything but a small wooden relief sculpture and 3 chairs have survived.

His old works aren't the only things that got destroyed. In 2007, Urs took a jackhammer and ripped through Gavin Brown’s spotless white floor. Not because he’s that short tempered, but for the sake of art. Urs created a hole in the gallery floor, upended pipes and filled the space with an open trench of dirt and debris, #art.

Talking about messy... In 2014, Urs married ’90s “it girl” Tara Subkoff. Which by the way meant he could add ScarJo and Chloe Sevigny to his close circle of friends. 2 years later and about 3 months after Tara revealed she was pregnant, their marriage ended. Tara took her millionaire-ex to court and demanded $10 million. When asked about her daughter Grace George during a 2016 interview she revealed “Sadly, her father, Urs Fischer, was not present at her birth and has not yet met his daughter”. Yikes!