Jessica Silverman is honored to announce Beverly Fishman’s The Pursuit of Perfection, a solo present of work and sculptures on view by way of November 2. A touch upon the fact and fantasy of progress, Fishman’s exhibition advances the historical past of abstraction and Pop Artwork whereas inspecting current developments in science, expertise, and human consciousness. Via refined geometric compositions, vibrant colours, clean textures, and lustrous refracted mild, Fishman’s work explores the best way that biotechnology has modified the expertise of being alive. The artist positions artwork not as an opiate of the folks however as a pharmaceutical enchancment or engineer of altered states, upgraded realities, and optimized selves.
The Pursuit of Perfection contains six new bas-relief wall work from Fishman’s ongoing “Polypharmacy” sequence, a time period the artist makes use of to discuss with drugs that encourage the works’ underlying buildings and shapes. In Pleasure, Liberation, Readability, Selection, Ease, Self- Dedication (2024), for instance, the six ideas within the title are usually not solely philosophical beliefs however the bodily guarantees of six drugs. The actual supply medicines of this portray handle persistent ache, consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction, and contraception. The enamel-on-wood works are visible antidotes whose intense hues overflow onto the white partitions upon which they hold, making a ricochet of constructive unintended effects. By these means, Fishman transforms illness into ease; she converts issues into auspicious orders.
The present is rounded out by Fishman’s earlier “Kandyland” sequence (2009–10). Created in acrylics and enamels on polished chrome steel, these psychedelic work owe their optical type to illicit medicine reasonably than prescriptions. Darkish Kandyland, for example, is split into two components. The higher half suggests a sea of static grey matter, punctuated by raver graphics and different emblems. In the meantime, the colourful weave depicted on the underside half of the portray might be a literalization of physique “tissue,” a phrase derived from the French verb to weave (tisser). It’s disrupted by the waves of electrocardiograms and recorded sounds, which sign the physiology of heartbeats and dance rhythms. Like a hazy horizon line between the higher mind-sky and decrease body-earth is a row of QR codes that talk to the embodiment of commerce. Capitalism shouldn’t be outdoors and over there; it’s integral to the well being and wealth of our self-awareness.
The present additionally presents a variety of free-standing sculptures based mostly on single capsule types. The work, Composure (2024), is a wonderfully balanced, shiny pale blue kind, based mostly on the form of a capsule prescribed for nervousness. It’s all the pieces that nervousness shouldn’t be — quiet, cool, assured, and cozy. A minimal tour de drive within the custom of Barbara Hepworth and Ellsworth Kelly, the sculpture provides a focus for calming the physique and thoughts.
Fishman’s distinctive artistic voice is in dialog with a broad vary of artists, useless and alive: hard-edge abstractionists like Frank Stella; Op artists resembling Bridget Riley; Gentle and Area figures like James Turrell, John McCracken, and Sixties Judy Chicago; and Pop artists resembling Roy Lichtenstein and Damien Hirst. Via her numerous distinctive our bodies of labor, Fishman not solely addresses the biotechnical and socio-cultural issues of latest life, however the timeless themes of life, loss of life, and sweetness.