Beverly Fishman American, b. 1955

At ten feet long, this monumental Dividose painting by Beverly Fishman is one of the largest works she created for her 2022 solo exhibition FEELS LIKE LOVE at Kavi Gupta. The work features five abstracted pharmaceutical forms, conjoined into a visual representation of a chemical cocktail. At one end is a partial epilepsy pill; at the other end is a partial anxiety pill. In the center are three forms suggestive of opioids and medication for depression and pain.

These forms are all part of Fishman’s vast visual alphabet of abstracted pharmaceutical forms. For decades, Fishman has diligently studied the visual vocabulary that pharmaceutical designers deploy in their calculated efforts to market antidepressants, anxiolytics, amphetamines, anti-inflammatories, beta blockers, opioids, and other chemicals to the masses. Morphed and elevated by Fishman in her studio, these medicinal motifs become the building blocks for ecstatic visual cocktails that open doors to the aesthetic sublime.

Placed in conversation with each other, these multi-colored forms dazzle the eye. They simultaneously confront the similarities between humanity’s relationship with pharmaceuticals, and our relationship with art. Empty spaces carved out of several of the forms—so called “missing doses”—create a literal void in which light and color can shine. The “missing doses” recall people’s habit of sometimes skipping a dose of medicine, either by choice or by economic necessity. In moments like this, our perception changes even if only briefly, creating opportunities for contemplation and perhaps transcendence.