Beverly Fishman: FEELS LIKE LOVE
Kavi Gupta presents FEELS LIKE LOVE, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Beverly Fishman (b. 1955), acclaimed visual artist and Anonymous Was A Woman Award Winner, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow, and National Endowment for the Arts Grantee.
A single heart punctuates the eight-foot-long multi-form that serves as the central painting in FEELS LIKE LOVE. The middle of the heart has been carved out, its reflective, pink inner wall subtly illuminating the void. Seduced by such an elegant and innocent form, will viewers recognize the heart’s true origin as the commercial logo for the world’s most successful brand of Diazepam?
“The heart is an abstraction of the V in Valium,” Fishman says. “It’s sinister. Hopefully people get that there’s that dark side. But nothing is reduced in my thinking to right or wrong, or yes or no. It’s a more complex situation, and I’m trying to negotiate that.”
Fishman’s luminescent, geometric relief paintings beguile the eyes. Along with their radiant material presence, their uncanny structures challenge viewers to look beyond the surface, to try to recall where it was that they have seen these curious shapes before. Epiphany is aided by the titles Fishman gives her paintings, which invoke a litany of ills, such as depression, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder, opioid addiction, insomnia, and ADHD—these are pharmaceutical forms, abstracted from the pills we ingest every day to balance our bodies and minds.
Arghavan Khosravi: The Witness
Kavi Gupta presents The Witness, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Arghavan Khosravi (b. 1984, Shahr-e-kord, Iran), Joan Mitchell Foundation Grantee and Walter Feldman Fellow. Following recent exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Yinchuan, China, and Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, this exhibition continues Khosravi’s investigation of the aesthetics of ancient Persian miniature painting as a vehicle for cultural transformation.
Khosravi’s paintings dazzle the eye with their dreamlike color palettes and masterful draughtsmanship. Yet, their most formidable visual characteristic is their multi-dimensionality. The images burst forth from the wall, their complex scaffolding of cut wooden panels offers a dramatic and constantly shifting perceptual experience to viewers. There are many hiding places in these painted realms, where danger lurks, and treasures await.
If aspects of these images look familiar it is because each of Khosravi’s paintings references a specific Persian miniature painting from history; yet, their architectural presence makes clear that they are not homages, but are intended to subvert the tradition to which such images belong.
