Barbara Westermann uses plaster and epoxy to explore relationships among signage, the occult, and contemporary art-making practices. Her sculptures operate as a conceptual alphabet based on medieval signs that originated in pharmacology, alchemy, and architecture. These morphed characters have a strange domestic quality. Their porcelain veneer turns these quasi-scientific hieroglyphs into a kind of bathtub chemistry that reexamines constructivist impulses while alluding to real aspects of everyday life.

Westermann has exhibited her work extensively, including at Freiburg Museum of Contemporary Art in Germany, and in a solo exhibition at La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, CA. After her exhibition at Momenta, Westermann exhibited her work at Holly Solomon Gallery, NYC, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, and in a two-person exhibition(with William Allen) at Williams College, Williamstown, MA