Barbara Westermann

Barbara Westermann is a German sculptor living in Providence, RI. In her new work, Westermann continues the traditions of conceptualist social sculpture, which began for her during the late 1970s and early 1980s (Joseph Beuys and Daniel Spoerri were her teachers). In Infrastructure #73 (which includes The Nurnberg Funnel and related relief works), Westermann applies the language of minimalism, using elemental abstract shapes, but at the same time going beyond the minimal with an eye and ear to feminism, musical instrumentation, and Social Democratic politics. This work informs a historical, social narrative using a metaphoric, three-dimensional vocabulary. She reveres the purity of form which goes back to medieval sciences, alchemy, and magic.

Westermann exhibits widely, including one-woman exhibitions at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art in California, the Freiburg Contemporary Art Museum in Germany, Clay Street Press Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, Brown University in Providence, RI, Au Base, A.R.T., and Momenta Art galleries in New York. Group exhibitions include the current Multiple Strategies exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, the Norton Sculpture Gardens in West Palm Beach, FL, the Holly Solomo...

Art Education Certificate Program, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 1997-96
Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, New York., NY, 1985
MA Sculpture, (w/Daniel Spoerri) Fachhochschule Kln, Cologne, Germany, 1985-82
BA in Urban Planning, Gesamthochschule Kassel, Germany, 1982-77

Single Exhibitions
Norton Sculpture Gardens, West Palm Beach, FL, 2003
Art Resources Transfer, New York, NY, 2000
Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI, 1999
Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 1997
Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY, 1995
Bischoff Galerie, Stuttgart, Germany, 1992
La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA., 1989
Museum fr Neue Kunst, Freiburg, Germany, 1988
Orangerie, Kassel, Germany, 1986

Selected Group Exhibitions
Freiburg Museum, Freiburg, Germany, Art Resources Transfer, Art Resources Transfer, AU Base Gallery, Dorfman Projects Gallery, Newport Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Holly Solomon Gallery, Ronald Feldman Gallery, Mills Gallery, Momenta Art, Goethe House; Studio Museum of Harlem, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art; Ace, Dia Art Foundation, P.S. 1 Institute for Art & Urban Resources (2002-90)

Awards
Rhode Island State Council ...