Contemporary Art Galleries at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present a group exhibition featuring works by Beverly Fishman, Marilyn Lerner, Paul Pagk, Joanna Pousette-Dart, and Cary Smith.

A Panel Discussion will take place on 17 October at 5:00pm, followed by an Opening Reception at 6:30pm. 

As US federal criminal charges are filed against Rochester Drug Cooperative – the first such case involving a drug distributor and its executives – and the Sackler family come under intense scrutiny for their role in the country’s opioid crisis, ‘Future Perfect’, Beverly Fishman’s solo show at Kavi Gupta, rings with the clarity of those indictments. Spanning the artist’s work from the late 1990s to the early 2010s, the show harnesses the power of marketing – the very same power which the Sacklers have been accused of abusing – to critique the insidious appeal of modern pills.

Carefully defined expanses of color and precisely calculated lines—the characteristic elements of geometric abstractions are often defined as rational, measured, and simple. Indeed, one can describe these artworks with a common vocabulary of shapes, colors, and sizes. Their meaning, however, is rarely so singular or straightforward. As painter Jo Baer noted, the challenge in making such work is to create “poetic objects” that are “discrete yet coherent, legible yet dense.” She called these efforts “double-dealing, double-edged.”

December 11, 2018—Anonymous Was a Woman today announced the ten recipients of its 2018 awards, which recognize women artists over 40 years of age who have made significant contributions in their fields to date, while continuing to create new work. Each recipient receives an unrestricted grant of $25,000.

Beverly Fishman’s high gloss surfaces have an inscrutable beauty. The shape and color of each work looks both estranging and familiar, and whilst the combinations of sometimes acidic or synthetic color entrance, they do not comfort. The reason, I suspect, is because not only are the multiple variations of geometric abstraction present but also the nagging solicitations of brand imaging. Fishman is of the generation of abstract painters who came to abstraction after it was cleansed of the conceit of purity. Abstraction had entered the realm of the senses by way of referential visions that embraced the world at large, free of dogma, or certainty, or for that matter a sure sense of subjectivity. 

Miles McEnery Gallery is featuring works by Beverly Fishman at the New York venue.

The inviting, and deeply intriguing wall reliefs on view through November 10, 2018 at Miles McEnery Gallery are a continuation of a series Fishman began in 2012.

The works on display are made using urethane paint on cut wood panels.

Their large size and bright color palette are confrontational and bursting with tensions that beguile the viewer’s senses. By painting the edges of the pieces with gleaming fluorescent tones, the colors interact with the white of the wall behind it and give the illusion of a neon glow.

Beverly Fishman creates powerful abstract paintings that address technology and the pharmaceutical industry. Fishman lives and works in Detroit, where she teaches painting at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She spent a sabbatical in New York last year, and late in the summer I had the opportunity to visit her in her studio. Fishman spoke at length about drugs, systems of dependency, and the insidious nature of healthcare in America. While I had prepared to discuss her geometric abstractions, her candor came as a surprise. The country’s current discourse on healthcare give her paintings particular significance. We remain one of the few industrialized nations without universal healthcare. With the election of Donald Trump, Republicans stand poised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Furthermore, many American citizens take a cocktail of prescription and illicit drugs to simply feel normal.

Fishman is a painter with the concerns of a sculptor, making paintings that require high levels of production. Her studio practice includes manufacturing uniquely shaped supports and consulting with automotive paint specialists to get the background she needs to achieve industrial finishes.  Fishman’s solo exhibition “DOSE,” curated by Nick Cave, opens Thursday at the CUE Art Foundation in New York, where it is on view through April 5.