New York-based self-taught Somali artist Uman's rich and vibrant canvases play with figuration and abstraction to explore the fluidity of culture and identity
Read MoreBorn in Somalia in 1980, Uman migrated to Kenya in 1989, during the Somali civil war, before relocating to Denmark in 1993. Acutely attuned to colour and illustration from a young age, they first began drawing in childhood and remain entirely self-taught.
Uman moved to New York in their twenties. Shortly after, they met psychiatrist and art therapist Annatina Miescher at Bellevue Hospital, who encouraged Uman to explore their intuitive style of artmaking, serving as a mentor and introducing them to figures such as the late painter and critic, Rene Ricard. While Uman had been making and selling their work in the street in New York since the early 2000s, institutional recognition didn't come until 2012, with appearances in group shows at Ramiken Crucible in Manhattan and London's Institute of Contemporary Art.
Working across painting, sculpture and collage, Uman's practice is characterised by an intimate engagement with colour and form. Their approach is abstracted and intuitive, with a vibrant palette. Their works are noted for their flowing shapes and amorphous planes, lending their practice a dreamlike sensibility which echoes the fluidity of their culture and identity.
Identity and autobiography are integral to Uman's practice. 'I think everything I do now is a self-portrait in different ways,' they have stated. 'Even my abstract paintings, mythical in nature, are self-portraits. I love drama, and so I depict myself with several mouths, and several eyes, just like a creature.' Through their works, they explore fantastical topographies while also alluding to personal experience and the liminality of transition.
These threads are seen in paintings such as Amapiano Dance (2022-23) and Hell in Heels (2022), which reference the South African dance music that has had profound influence and inspiration upon Uman and their work.
Drawing upon the colours of their childhood in East Africa, Arabic calligraphy, spirituality and myth, Uman's paintings are rich in iconography, geometric forms and instinctive gestures, with their own childhood and dreams serving as repeated themes. Together, these construct a recurring visual language that speaks to several obscured and deeply personal narratives.
Uman's canvases integrate the figurative with the abstract. All Eyes on Me (2021), for example, is dominated by a face represented in deep blue, onto which is painted several pairs of eyes in varying colours and shapes. In Samone (2023), Uman's eye motif makes another appearance, this time surrounded by grids full of geometric patterns, snaking lines and sharp angles.
Uman has held solo exhibitions in White Columns Gallery, New York; Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens; and Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York. Their work has been included in group exhibitions at the Rochester Art Center, Minnesota; Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; and Institute of Contemporary Art, London.
Arianna Mercado | Ocula | 2024
