Uman

Uman (born 1980, Somalia) is a self-taught, Somali-born, New York–based artist whose vivid paintings, sculptures, and works on paper are known for their ecstatic color, intuitive mark-making, and deeply personal symbolism. She grew up in Kenya before immigrating to the United States as a teenager, eventually settling in upstate New York.  Her practice draws from a rich blend of lived experience, cross-cultural identity, East African visual traditions, dreams, memory, and queer imagination. Working improvisationally, Uman creates compositions that oscillate between abstraction and figuration—spiraling patterns, biomorphic forms, mythic figures, and radiant color fields that feel both ritualistic and playful.  Uman’s work has gained major institutional recognition, including a 2024 solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which introduced her vibrant and highly distinct visual language to a broader public. She has exhibited across the United States and internationally, and her work is held in prominent private and museum collections. Uman lives and works in upstate New York.