Beverly Fishman, CURE: The Contemporary Dayton, Dayton, OH

Beverly Fishman is an American painter and sculptor whose work explores science, medicine, and the body. Her large, exquisitely crafted object-paintings feature titles like Untitled (Epilepsy, Pain, Chronic Pain, Opiate Dependence), derived from geometric arrangements of tablets, capsules, and pills; prescribed cocktails for the ailments outlined parenthetically in each work’s title. 

Fishman imbues her glossy, exuberant pieces with the hidden implication of what lurks beneath the façade of pharmaceutical culture: the manipulative effect of color on the psyche and the penchant of these colors to mark mental connections between consumer and drug. 

Working with this knowledge, Fishman uses a calming palette of dusty roses, soft lilacs, cool blues, and pale sands; mixing in the occasional shock of lime green, nuclear yellow, and traffic-cone orange. The subdued tones conjure the darker side effects of the drugs and the resplendent, yet minimal nature of her paintings mirror the promises of Western medicine.