Artist Uman opened her first solo museum exhibition in the United States, titled “After all the things…,” at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut. In an interview, she discusses her initial reluctance to enter the institutional world, preferring to focus on commercial success, but found the right partnership with chief curator Amy Smith-Stewart. The show features large paintings, a video, and works that blend landscape with abstraction, reflecting her life in upstate New York and a turbulent year transformed into calm, internal peace.
This exhibition matters because it marks a significant milestone for Uman, a highly regarded artist who has navigated commercial success while resisting institutional expectations until the timing felt right. Her universal praise among critics and collectors, and her ability to work with blue-chip galleries like Hauser & Wirth while maintaining an outsider perspective, highlights the evolving relationship between artists, institutions, and the market. The show also underscores the growing recognition of abstraction and landscape as vehicles for personal and emotional expression in contemporary art.