Okay Gallery is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition: DOMINA DOMI, a solo show of work by Bobbi Meier curated by Erin Madarieta. The exhibition opens on Friday, August 16, 2019 with a reception from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. The reception is free and open to the public.

“Domina Domi” translates from Latin as “mistress of the house.” What is the meaning of such a role for the woman who occupies it? What are the limitations and powers, pains and pleasures of her position? Bobbi Meier’s abstract works signal traditional middle-class homemaking practices with recognizable items like ornate candlesticks, antique furniture, and traces of floral lace. They also suggest caregiving of both the young and the old with materials such as plush toys and medical socks. But as much as the home is a site for labor, its enclosure offers a site for private pleasure. Swaths of fuzzy synthetic fabric in candy colors elicit the desire to caress, evoking both children’s stuffed animals and the fur of erogenous body parts. Drips of white fluid complement bulging biomorphic forms rendered in metallic spandex and stuffed pantyhose. Sensuous, bodily enjoyment exceeds desires for respectability. “Domina” takes on another valence.

Bobbi Meier is a Chicago-based visual artist working in sculpture, drawing, photography and installation. Through her abstract soft sculptures and domestically focused installations she explores themes of sensuality, emotional struggle and loss. Ambiguity is a primary consideration encouraging the psychological impulse to see implications of the body in her abstract forms. Most recent exhibitions include; Visceral at Extra Projects, Chicago, Off-Center at Adds Donna Gallery, Chicago; Magnolias Bloom in Spring at Gretchen Charlton Gallery, Kankakee, Fugitive Narratives and Front & Center at Hyde Park Art Center, Soft Sculpture at International Museum of Surgical Science, Exhaustion and Exuberance at Chicago Artists Coalition, Perspiration Glitz at Roots and Culture, Chicago; Evanston Art Center 24th Biennial, Evanston, IL; The Second Terrain Biennial, Oak Park, IL. She has been awarded residencies at The John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Program, Kohler WI (upcoming Sep-Dec 2019), The Ragdale Foundation, The Vermont Studio Center, Ox-Bow, Saugatuck MI, Anderson Ranch, Sanskriti-Kendra, in New Delhi, the HATCH Residency Program at the Chicago Artists Coalition, and was a participant and member of The Center Program at the Hyde Park Art Center in 2017. Meier earned her MAAE (2000), and MFA in Fiber and Material Studies (2011), from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibition Viewing Hours: Saturdays 12:00 – 6:00 and by appointment.

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Tags: Bobbi Meier, Chicago, Domina Domi, Erin Madarieta, Lower West Side, Okay Gallery