[2][3] Fischl was born in New York City[1] and grew up on suburban Long Island; his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1967.

[citation needed] Fischl has embraced the description of himself as a painter of the suburbs, not generally considered appropriate subject matter prior to his generation.

He took 2,000 photographs, which he reworked digitally and used as the basis for a series of paintings,[11] one of which, the monumental Krefeld Redux, Bedroom #6 (Surviving the Fall Meant Using You for Handholds) (2004) was purchased by Paul Allen featured in the 2006 Double Take Exhibit at Experience Music Project, where it was juxtaposed with a much smaller Degas pastel.

That is the tactic of Fischl, too, though the society with which he deals has an unstructured brutality and a violence never far from release that are very different from the nicely calibrated cruelties that Degas recorded.

"[13] Fischl also collaborated with Jamaica Kincaid, E. L. Doctorow and Frederic Tuten combining paintings and sketches with literary works.

[17] In 2000 he moved to Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York with his wife, landscapist April Gornik, where they share a home and matching studios.