This work belongs to Beverly Fishman’s highly-polished Pill Reliefs series, which utilizes pharmaceutical forms as the basis for seemingly abstract compositions that radiate with color. As the title suggests, the work references common pharma forms for opioids and treatment for depression. Made with urethane automotive paint and medium-density fiberboard (MDF), the works sometimes reference a single pill form and other times, as in this work, they present an assemblage of pill forms — a chemical cocktail.

Integral to the success of this work is the presence of distinctive voids in some of the pill forms. Nicknamed “Missing Doses,” these pieces engage the vacant, interior spaces with color and light. Fishman is directly referencing the transformative power of pharmaceuticals and the transcendent potential of visual art, suggesting the ways people have come to use both as an avenue through which to seek the sublime. The color-and-light-filled forms evoke both the metaphysical theories and aesthetic strategies of the Light and Space Movement, as the missing pieces activate emptiness, exploring the creative potential of voids and raising questions about what truly is the subject of the work.