Beverly Fishman's intoxicating artworks: a Love Letter to LA

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Anxiety, Three Missing Doses), 2020, and Untitled (Anxiety, One Missing Dose), 2020, urethane paint on wood. Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.

(Image credit: Ed Mumford)

By Harriet Lloyd-Smith

last updated 14 October 2022

Beverly Fishman’s work might appear enticing and harmless, but one need only scratch the surface before something more murky comes bubbling up.

At Gavlak gallery, Fishman's show, ‘Love Letter to LA’, explores the marketing of pharmaceuticals to an increasingly medicated public. These alluring, ultra-polished wall reliefs rendered in urethane paint seek to make tangible the physical and mental states of pain, anxiety and wellness. They also critique the pharmaceutical industry in an era of increasing agitation, addiction and mental health issues.

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Pain, ADHD, Pain, Pain), 2021, a painting that resembles pills and addresses physical and mental health, coinciding with mental health awareness week 2021 — Beverly Fishman, *Untitled (Pain, ADHD, Pain, Pain)*, 2021, urethane paint on wood. *Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

Visually, it’s a hard-edged minimalism indebted to mid-1960s California modern art, including the Finish Fetish movement and the vibrant palette of early-career Eva Hesse, before she deserted colour entirely.

Fishman is best known for multidisciplinary work exploring technological, scientific and biological systems of perception and representation. She seeks to provoke constructive conversations about the complexities in the medical industry, and how individuals perceive their physical and mental health, and fashion their identities.

Sculptures shaped like pills that address the medical industry and physical and mental health. Installation view of Beverly Fishman: 'Love Letter to L.A'. at GAVLAK Los Angeles

Top: Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Depression, Pain), 2021, urethane paint on wood. Above: Installation view of Beverly Fishman: 'Love Letter to LA' at Gavlak, Los Angeles. Courtesy of GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.

The polymer sheen and ovoid shapes of the artist’s new work appear to reference tablets and capsules, divided and dosed; their alluring forms demonstrate how both sickness and health can be marketed via seduction. The rosy hues reference how women are particularly vulnerable to gendered pharmaceutical campaigns that have the potential to misdiagnose their targets; for example, the documented phenomenon of heart attacks in women misidentified as anxiety.

In paintings with hard-hitting titles like Untitled (Pain, Anxiety, Anxiety) (2020) and Untitled (Pain, Asthma, Anxiety) (2021), the artist’s slick handling of matte and satin finishes prompts optical uncertainty as to whether forms are convex or concave, two- or three-dimensional. This jumble of positive and negative effects reflects on the increasingly common practice of polypharmacy, in which an individual patient is prescribed simultaneous courses of medication with potentially harmful combined effects.

Aesthetically, Fishman’s new pieces glow with exuberance and optimism, yet they imply the very opposite. Beneath lurks something sinister, obscured by their glossy, beguiling, pseudo-neon gleam.

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Pain, Anxiety, Anxiety), 2020. Urethane paint on wood — Beverly Fishman, *Untitled (Pain, Anxiety, Anxiety)*, 2020, urethane paint on wood. *Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Anxiety, One Missing Dose), 2020 — Beverly Fishman, detail shot of *Untitled (Anxiety, One Missing Dose)*, 2020. *Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Anxiety and Stress), 2020 a pill shaped sculpture — Beverly Fishman, *Untitled (Anxiety and Stress)*, 2020, urethane paint on wood. *Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

Beverly Fishman, Untitled (Epilepsy, Pain, Chronic Pain, Opiate Dependence), 2021 — Beverly Fishman, *Untitled (Epilepsy, Pain, Chronic Pain, Opiate Dependence)*, 2021, urethane paint on wood. *Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

Beverly Fishman, Detail shot of Untitled (Insomnia, Pain, ADHD, Pain), — Beverly Fishman, detail shot of *Untitled (Insomnia, Pain, ADHD, Pain)*, 2020. *Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

Beverly Fisherman, Detail shot of Untitled (Anxiety, Three Missing Doses), 2020 — Beverly Fisherman, detail shot of *Untitled (Anxiety, Three Missing Doses)*, 2020. *Courtesy of the artist and GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

Beverly Fishman, Installation view of 'Love Letter to L.A.' at GAVLAK Los Angeles — Installation view of ’Love Letter to LA’ at Gavlak, Los Angeles. *Courtesy of GAVLAK Los Angeles | Palm Beach.*

INFORMATION

‘Love Letter to LA’ until 5 June 2021 at Gavlak gallery, Los Angeles

gavlakgallery.com

ADDRESS

1700 South Santa Fe Avenue, Suite 440
Los Angeles, CA 90021

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Harriet Lloyd-Smith is the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.