From September 5 to 30, Temple Gallery in Lower Manhattan, New York, presented “Domina,” a solo exhibition by artist Sima Schloss. The show focused on the empresses of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in the Roman Empire, aiming to restore the silenced and simplified voices of women erased from history.
Reinterpreting Suppressed Histories
The exhibition’s title, “Domina,” comes from the Latin word meaning “a woman of rank.” True to its origin, the series takes inspiration from figures such as Livia Drusilla and Julia the Elder—women who supported the Roman Empire from behind the scenes, yet were remembered only as “schemers” or “disgraced daughters.”
Through layered compositions, Schloss reconstructs and redefines their narratives. Working with translucent materials such as vellum and mylar, she paints silhouettes using ink, acrylic, and oil pastels. The overlapping surfaces shift with light and angle, evoking the complexity of truth, myth, and perception that defines women’s history itself.
The Body as an Archive and a Battlefield
Many of the works on view depict life-size silhouettes of women, their surfaces tangled with lines, stains, and scars.
As Schloss states, “The body is both an archive and a battlefield.” In her hands, each form becomes a vessel for the “silent records” of women’s lives.
Like the Roman empresses who endured exile, betrayal, and violence yet asserted their existence, these figures resonate across centuries with women today. Schloss’s work also reflects her own inner struggle—her career shaped by perseverance amid anxiety and learning challenges. Her art becomes a universal story of women who navigate between external expectations and internal conflicts.
The Process of Destruction and Renewal
Schloss’s process resembles the act of replaying an old recording—returning to the same material again and again to discover new meaning. She creates large drawings over weeks or months, tears them apart, and reconstructs them. This cycle of destruction and rebuilding becomes a ritual of rewriting histories distorted by bias and omission.
Rather than a nostalgic return to the past, “Domina” is a project of renewal—an effort to revive suppressed memories and breathe life into what has been forgotten.
Artist Profile
Sima Schloss
Based in New York, Sima Schloss is an artist who explores the body as a site of memory and regeneration, creating multilayered works that examine women’s history and identity. She has developed a distinctive style that combines painting and collage, layering translucent materials such as vellum and mylar with ink and acrylic to construct depth and emotion.
Schloss has held solo exhibitions at Temple Gallery (New York) and ShowUp Gallery (Boston), among others. Her 2024 solo exhibition, On Empathy, was featured in Boston Art Review, gaining attention as a compelling new voice in contemporary art. In addition to numerous group exhibitions and art fairs in the U.S. and abroad, she has participated in artist residencies across Europe, including projects in Italy, Ireland, France, Greece, and Finland.
She also serves as an adjunct lecturer at Hostos Community College in the Bronx and as an art educator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, pursuing dialogue and renewal through both creation and education.
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