Bathing With the Nymphs
Olivia Zubko combines our favored legends with humankind’s most sacred pillars: beauty and bathrooms.
Perhaps because it appeals to universal truths, we can’t seem to shake classical mythology. Humans, then and now, are freaks, drawn to stories of trickery and violence.
Not a pleasant revelation, but it may explain why Nymphaeum, Chicago-based artist Olivia Zubko’s solo show at Western Exhibitions, is so beguiling. The show combines our favored legends with humankind’s most sacred pillars: beauty and bathrooms. In this marriage, Zubko’s work is striking, pervaded by the unsettled discomfort of intimacy.
Zubko’s wall sculptures are altars to lavatories, their devotional air echoing historical nymphaeums — monuments consecrated to water nymphs. In the Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods, they were built around natural grottoes, but today, you only need to go as far as a medicine cabinet or gym to witness rituals of allurement.
Olivia Zubko, “Echo’s Basin” (2026), glazed stoneware, glazed porcelain, metal hardware (left); Olivia Zubko, “Circe” (2026), glazed stoneware, synthetic hair
