Frances Shimmer High School, Mount Carroll, Illinois (under Edith Bell)
1945-1949: BA in sociology, Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota
1949-1954: BA in Art Education, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois
1955: MA in Art Education, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois (Kathleen Blackshear and Edith Spears)
1956: France and Italy
1958-1960: Haiti (experimented with watercolor, mixed media, texture)
Mexico and Central America
1953, 1955, 1960, 1961, 1968: Artists of Chicago & Vicinity, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1952: Chicago Tribune Art Exhibit, Chicago, Illinois
1954: The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1956: Paintings of France and Italy by Barbara Aubin, Cromer and Quint Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1956: Riccardo's Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1957, 1958: Artist Member Exhibition, Renaissance Society, University of Chicago
1961: Mid-Year Show, Butler Institute of American Art,
1978: Fairweather Hardin Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (represented by the gallery from 1960-1991)
1985: Alive and Lively - Over Forty, Fairweather Hardin Gallery and Chicago State University
1986: Talisman, Countryside Art Center, Arlington Heights, Illinois
1986: juried exhibit, Countryside Art Center, Arlington Heights, Illinois
1986: Chicago Neighborhood Artists, Logan Square, Chicago, Illinois
1990: Fairweather Hardin Gallery
1993: 18th Annual Hyde Park Art Center Member’s Show, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Illinois
1996: New Mexico Art League, Albuquerque, New Mexico
1997: Meridian Center, Washington, DC
2001: Chicago Culture Center, Chicago, Illinois (solo)
2006: Personal Symbols of Age, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (solo)
2007: ARC Gallery and Educational Foundation, Chicago, Illinois
2008: Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois
2013-2014: Focus 4, Four Solo Exhibitions, Illinois State Museum, Chicago Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2017-2018: Confluence: Contemporaries of Robert Middaugh, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois
Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Illinois State Museum, Chicago Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Illinois State Museum, Lockport Gallery, Lockport, Illinois
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Ball State Museum, Muncie, Indiana
Centre d'Art, Haiti
Continental Illinois Bank, Chicago, Illinois
First National Bank of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois
Kemper Group Collection, Long Grove, Illinois
Midwest Museum of Art, Elkhart, Indiana
Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Washington, DC
Shimer College,
Skokie Public Library, Skokie, Illinois
State of Illinois Building Collection, Chicago, Illinois
Union League Club, Chicago, Illinois
Stevens, Jane. Barbara Aubin: 4+ Decades in Art. City of Chicago, 2001.
Stevens, Jane. Barbara Aubin, A Lifetime of Art: 1928-2014. 2016.
Chicago Artists Coalition
1953-?: Chicago Society of Artists
Chicago Women's Caucus for Art (a founder; Vice President for the Midwest Region in the 1980s)
Honorable Mention, Dana Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
1955-1956: George D. Brown Foreign Travel Fellowship (to France and Italy)
1958-1960: Fulbright Fellowship (to paint in Haiti; documented textures of sea life and flora)
1963: Huntington Hartford Grant (to work in Pacific Palisades, California)
1985: Chicago State University (to document in mixed media the lives of 11 Chicago women artists between 40 and 70 years of age)
1999: Watercolor USA, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri
2001: Chicago Artists Month, featured artist
2001: Community Arts Assistance Program Grant, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs/Illinois Arts Council Access Program
Illinois Arts Council grant for postcard exhibition
Barbara Aubin papers, circa 1950-2000, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
1956-1958, 1960-1967: teacher, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1957: taught at University of Wisconsin
1971-1991: taught at Chicago State University
1980-1981: visiting artist, St. Louis Community College
lecturer
art critic
taught at Chicago State University
writer
Her love of art started early and continued until her death in 2014. Elements of water, land, and seascapes seem to float through her surreal landscapes. These dream-like images become very complex and beautiful. The autobiographical surreal worlds she created reflected her strong feminist consciousness.
Inspired by artist friends Carolyn Howlett and Vera Berdich. Mentors were Andrene Kauffman and Leah Balsham.