Photo credit: Luigi Cazzaniga
Copyright: Uman. Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Nicola Vassell Gallery
Ep.190 Uman’s dazzling visual vocabulary reflects her life and expansive cross-cultural experiences. Born in Somalia and raised in Kenya, she migrated to Denmark as a teenager and later to New York NY as a young adult. Now, with a home and studio in Upstate New York, Uman paints richly-hued worlds replete with gesture, geometry and the sublime. An intuitive artist, her influences abound from memories of East African childhood, a rigorous education in traditional calligraphy and a fascination with kaleidoscopic color and design. With nods to self-portraiture and fictional topographies, Uman’s paintings speak fluently of liminal navigation. Her work contemplates both the physical and spiritual, intertwining abstraction, figuration, meditative patterning and a reverence for the natural world.
Uman has had solo exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth, London, England; Nicola Vassell, New York NY; Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens, Greece; Fierman, New York NY; Anne De Villepoix, Paris, France; and White Columns, New York NY. She has been featured in group exhibitions at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada; For-Site Foundation at Fort Mason Chapel, San Francisco CA; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK; Karma, New York NY; and Ramiken Crucible, New York NY.
In 2022, she was the recipient of the inaugural grant for The Cube at TRIADIC’s FORMAT Festival in Bentonville AR.
Nicola Vassell Gallery https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/18/style/uman-artist-hauser-wirth/index.html#:~:text=In%20December%202023%2C%20Uman’s%20work,the%20spirit%20of%20the%20show.
Hauser & Wirth https://www.hauserwirth.com/news/welcoming-uman-to-hauser-wirth-in-partnership-with-nicola-vassell/
https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/uman-darling-sweetie-sweetie-darling/
Artnet https://news.artnet.com/art-world/umans-painting-hauser-wirth-2426374
Brooklyn Rail https://brooklynrail.org/2023/05/art/Uman-with-Chris-Martin
Elephant Magazine https://elephant.art/umans-studio-in-the-hudson-valley-is-a-portal-to-a-kaleidoscopic-world/
Artforum https://www.artforum.com/events/uman-250558/
ArtNews https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/uman-artist-profile-best-practices-1234685155/
The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/uman
Dream Idea Machine https://www.dreamideamachine.com/?p=94536
Art Plugged https://artplugged.co.uk/hauser-wirth-teams-up-with-nicola-vassell-gallery-to-represent-artist-uman/
Meer https://www.meer.com/en/74374-uman-i-want-everything-now
Art Rabbit https://www.artrabbit.com/events/uman-darling-sweetie-sweetie-darling
WhiteWall https://whitewall.art/art/mark-bradford-senga-nengudi-uman-and-more-must-see-shows-in-new-york/
Cultured Magazine https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2023/05/01/fred-eversley-sarah-morris-uman
Fad Magazine https://fadmagazine.com/2024/01/30/uman-darling-sweetie-sweetie-darling/
What We Adore https://www.whatweadore.com/uman-darling-sweetie-sweetie-darling/
Untitled, 2023
acrylic, oil and oil stick on canvas
83 1_2 x 83 3_4 in
Copyright: Uman. Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Nicola Vassell Gallery.
Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer
When Rolfie smiles my world is sunshine, 2023
acrylic, oil and oil stick on canvas
83 3_4 x 83 3_4 in,
Copyright: Uman. Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Nicola Vassell Gallery.
Photo: Sarah Muehlba
BBC London In These Streets, 2023
acrylic, oil and oil stick on canvas, 95 7_8 x 96 in
Copyright: Uman. Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Nicola Vassell Gallery.
Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer
Samaki in the Ocean, 2023
acrylic, oil and oil stick on canvas
96 x 96 in
Copyright: Uman. Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Nicola Vassell Gallery.
Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer
