New Paintings on Stainless Steel by Beverly Fishman Featured in Wavelength, The Artist’s Second Solo Exhibition at David Richard Gallery In Santa Fe

David Richard Gallery will present Wavelength, the gallery’s second solo exhibition for artist Beverly Fishman. Brightly colored and optically active, the new paintings on stainless steel challenge both the viewer’s visual perception and susceptibility to the seduction of contemporary advertising. The exhibition will be presented from May 10-June 15, 2013 with an artist reception on Friday, May 17 from 5:00-7:00 PM at the gallery located on 544 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, phone 505-983-9555 in the Santa Fe Railyard Arts District.

Fishman’s latest work focuses on wavelengths that are used in medicine, such as EKGs and EEG and other diagnostic tests. While these wavelengths are a physical representation of specific bodily functions, in Fishman’s work she uses them to comment on how medical data becomes a more important representation of the patient than the actual person in our high tech, data driven, fast paced world. Icons of pharmaceuticals subtly collaged among the data along with bright and fluorescent colored stripes of barcodes reference the temptation of marketing and a consumer-driven culture that believes in and expects a cure for every disease and discomfort. All painted on polished reflective stainless steel, allows the viewers to glean a hint of themselves through the data and decide if there really is a pill to cure their ill.

Inspired early in her career by Gene Davis, Richard Anuszkiewicz and Mel Bochner, her artwork is rooted in color and hard edge painting, Op Art and Pop Art. However, Fishman has created her own language that imbues her paintings, wall reliefs and sculptures with a conceptual underpinning that challenges the viewer visually and intellectually. The exhibition also features one of Fishman’s latest Pill Spill sculptures, consisting of many blown glass elements that are larger scale replicas of pharmaceuticals clustered together as though just poured from a bottle by someone scrambling in search of the right drug for that particular moment.

Beverly Fishman has exhibited her artwork in 25 solo exhibitions since 2000 and her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, museum presentations and art fairs. Her work is included in many important private and public collections, including the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS; and Toledo Art Museum, Toledo, OH among others. Fishman’s work has been extensively reviewed in important publications such as Art In America, Wall Street Journal, Modern Painters, ARTnews, Wallpaper Magazine, Juxtapoz, NY Arts Magazine, Artnet Magazine, Art & Antiques and Art Papers among others. Fishman has been the recipient of many important awards and fellowships, including Toledo Museum of Art’s Guest Artist Pavilion Project; Hassam, Speicher, Betts, and Symons Purchase Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award; Artist Space Exhibition Grant; and NEA Fellowship Grant.