This painting by Beverly Fishman debuted in FEELS LIKE LOVE, Fishman's 2022 solo exhibition at Kavi Gupta. An eight-foot-long “dividose” painting, it is a monumental example of Fishman's ongoing examination of humanity's complicated relationship with pharmaceuticals. Its luminescent presence beguiles the eyes, while the uncanny structures challenge viewers to look beyond the surface, to try to recall where it was that they have seen these curious shapes before. Epiphany is aided by the title, which invokes a litany of ills—Diabetes, Pain, Pain, Chronic Pain, Pain. These are pharmaceutical forms, abstracted from the pills we ingest every day to balance our bodies and minds.

Some of the pill forms, such as the small circular forms in the middle of the work, are whole. Others, like the form at the end, are cut into parts. Two of the forms have their inner sections cut out, allowing reflected color to fill the voids. These so-called “missing doses” examine what fills the empty spaces in our perception, and in our lives.

The two stacked and conjoined circles in this painting—one that’s solid, and one with a missing dose—have a special meaning for Fishman.

“The circles are abstract, but painting one red made it more like signage to me, like stop,” Fishman says. “Then there are the missing pieces, or the multiple pieces that represent the different pills that a single person takes every day—medicine has done this by fracturing us through its specialties. We become divided. We disassociate ourselves from our body. We’re not comfortable in our skin.”