Since 1988, Doolin has developed a style to facilitate her intersectional social critique. Casting traditionally domestic items in steel and iron, her sculptural work reverses the cultural equation of femininity with weakness. Rusting doilies and patinaed florals carry on the legacies of their referents, putting Doolin in dialogue with artists like Betye Saar, Méret Oppenheim, and Louise Bourgeois. By working with found objects, these artists encourage future generations to eschew the oppressive constraints of domesticity as it was, and still is, exercised on women. Doolin was born in Dallas, Texas. She received her BFA in Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1983 and her MFA in Sculpture from SMU in 1987.
Doolin is a feminist artist known for her interdisciplinary application of industrial materials and found objects. In the foreword to Doolin’s forthcoming book, Jessica Morgan, director of the Dia Art Foundation, writes, “Delighting in the act of transformation, in Doolin’s hands hard becomes pliable; solid becomes porous; and delicate becomes durable.” The artist’s work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, the Center for Book Arts, New York, the Sculpture Center, New York, the Vizivàrosi Gallery in Budapest, Hungary, the Meadows Museum and The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, both in Dallas. Her work can be found in collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England and the Museé de l’Erotisme, Paris, France.
[excerpted from Erin Cluley Gallery website: www.erincluley.com]