Barbarella Maier, born in Basel, attended the Comart School of Acting, Mime, and Dance in Zürich from ’89–’90, attended the “Vorkurs A” and “Basiserweiterung” in spatial design at the Basel School of Design from ’90–’92, completed an internship in taxidermy at the Museum of Natural History in Basel in 1993, independent studio work and travels from ’93–’95, studied painting with Werner von Mutzenbecher from ’95–’98, attended the Basel School of Design and audited classes in sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, graduated from the Basel School of Design with a degree in sculpture (Freies Bildnerisches Gestalten) with Prof. Stephan Balkenhol in 1998.

Barbarella Maier has been developing her EASY – ART paper objects since 1997. These are modeled on her own photographs, which she enlarges using a grid and reproduces using a photocopier. Working with photocopies allows her to create and own things without being encumbered by actual acquisition or possession and lets her use these objects to make situations visible so they can be viewed from the outside, as models. These three-dimensional paper objects stuffed with cotton batting are props – models, which do not replace the objects they are modeled after because as objects they are originals that are not intended to be substitutes for nor can they be substituted by anything. Thus she has created EASY – ART small objects that might include an entire shoe shop. With these 1:1 paper objects in their specially designed shoe boxes the artist can tour the country and fill an entire wall at art fairs, for example the wall of the Galerie Lisi Hämmerle at this year's Tease Art Fair in Cologne.

Since 1998, Barbarella Maier has been invited to numerous exhibitions to present installations and manifestations involving her paper objects.

The Swiss artist first showed her work at the Galerie in the summer of 2006 in answer to an invitation from Christian Eisenberger. Her contribution to the Eisenberger’s “Dies ist doch kein Porno” exhibition was the installation of one of her EASY – ART pissoirs in the entrance area of the Galerie. The gallery owner didn't realize until after the exhibition opening that the artist had also placed her EASY – ART pissoirs along the Lake Constance promenade up to the Bregenz Festival House in a kind of “manifestation in public space.”
Maier's installations have been shown in Basel, Zürich, Laupen (near Bern), Paris, Berlin, Karlsruhe, as well as via “emerging artists schweiz,” a juried exhibition of contemporary Swiss art, in the Essl Collection in Klosterneuburg and most recently last year in Vienna. Her EASY – ART plate of cold cuts and pieces of meat were a perfect contribution to the Galerie’s “Bon Appétit” exhibition in October 2006.
The title of her first solo show at the Galerie “Art, Cars, Models, Shoes” is quite straightforward, yet at the same time doesn’t really give anything away. The photo on the exhibition postcard shows Barbarella Maier – this time as a model herself? – and all of a sudden with black hair? – holding a car object in her hand, playing?
Now the artist has focused her attention on the gallery space. She has shifted her attention to room-filling objects. Her EASY – ART paper objects sometimes measure up to 12 meters in diameter. If she sticks to a 1:1 ratio with her cars, her dream of a car showroom might almost come true.

Prizes and Scholarships:
2006/7 “emerging artists schweiz” at the Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg
2004 winner of the x-mast+, Centre PasquArt in Biel, art scholarship awarded by Laufenburg, studio residency in Maloja / visarte Schweiz. 2003 1st prize / emerging artist prize awarded by the Art Forum Ute Barth, in Zürich. 2003 award winner in the competition sponsored by the energy forum SUN 21 and realization of the installation “FISCHE IM KRAFTWERK” in Birsfelden.
2000–2001 scholarship and studio at the Cité des Arts Paris from the canton of Basel–Stadt. 1999 IAAB scholarship and studio in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Opening hours: Wednesday till Saturday from 10 a.m.–12 noon and 3–7 p.m