Olivia Zubko's "Nymphaeum" at Western Exhibitions, Chicago

Chicago-based artist Olivia Zubko presents "Nymphaeum," a solo exhibition at Western Exhibitions that pairs classical mythology with the rituals of beauty and the bathroom. Her wall sculptures function as altars to lavatories, echoing the devotional character of historical nymphaeums — monuments consecrated to water nymphs that were built around natural grottoes during the Hellenistic and Roman imperial periods. Zubko's works carry what the source describes as the unsettled discomfort of intimacy. Two pieces dated 2026 are identified: "Echo's Basin," made with glazed stoneware, glazed porcelain and metal hardware, and "Circe," made with glazed stoneware and synthetic hair. The exhibition's premise links ancient legends of trickery and violence with contemporary spaces of allurement, from medicine cabinets to gyms, where grooming rituals now stand in for the sacred sites of antiquity.