Amalia Ulman

Amalia Ulman
Born	1989 Argentina
Occupation	Performance Artist

Amalia Ulman (born 1989), is an Argentinian born Spanish artist. As an artist, she works across mediums, including poetry, graphic design, video, iOS mobile uploads, painting, and installation. Raised in Spain, she graduated in 2011 from Central Saint Martins in London while she was working part time as a sex worker.

Life

Ulman was born in Argentina in 1989. Her father owned a skateboarding factory before they moved to Spain. Amalia Ulman currently lives between Los Angeles, London and Gijón.

Art and works

Her work deals with issues of class, gender, and sexuality. Ulman is particularly interested in middlebrow aesthetics.

In 2014 Amalia Ulman started “Excellences & Perfections,” a four month durational performance taking place directly on her personal Instagram. In "Excellences & Perfections" Amalia Ulman fabricated a fictional character whose story unfolded in three different episodes. The three different episodes was acting as a cute girl then as a sugar babe then as a life goddess (fashion and style blogger). "The idea was to bring fiction to a platform that has been designed for supposedly “authentic” behavior, interactions and content. The intention was to prove how easy an audience can be manipulated through the use of mainstream archetypes and characters they’ve seen before."

In 2016 "Excellences and Perfections" was selected to be included in the group exhibition, "Performing for the Camera" curated by Simon Baker at Tate Modern, London. (18 February 2016 — 12 June 2016). The exhibition, which examines the relationship between photography and performance, brings together over 500 works spanning 150 years; from the invention of photography in the 19th century to the selfie-culture of today. Through Amalia Ulman's instagram-base project, "Excellences and Perfections" social media is examined in the art historical context of photographic performance.

The narrative which unfolded over the course of the performance was: "The provincial girl moves to the big city, wants to be a model, wants money, splits up with her high-school boyfriend, wants to change her lifestyle, enjoys singledom, runs out of money because she doesn’t have a job, because she is too self-absorbed in her narcissism, she starts going on seeking-arrangement dates, gets a sugar daddy, gets depressed, starts doing more drugs, gets a boob job because her sugar daddy makes her feel insecure about her body, and also he pays for it, she goes through a breakdown, redemption takes place, the crazy bitch apologizes, the dumb blonde turns brunette and goes back home. Probably goes to rehab, then she is grounded at her family house."

In 2012, Amalia presented Profit | Decay, show with Katja Novitskova at Arcadia_Missa, London.

In 2014, Amalia Ulman presented two solo shows in Los Angeles, CA, "Used & New" at ltd los angeles and "Delicious Works" at Smart Objects. She also had the solo show "Baby Footprints Crow’s Feet" with Ellis King in Dublin, IE.

In October 2014, during Frieze Art Fair, Amalia Ulman presented a solo show "The Destruction of Experience" at Evelyn Yard in London. For the show Ulman made "The Future Ahead", a video essay about Justin Bieber's "growth from angelic teenager to hetero-normative white male".

In January 2015, Amalia presented "Stock Images of War", her first solo show in New York City at James Fuentes Gallery. “Stock Images of War” is an immersive installation composed of twelve simple wire-frame sculptures. Each sculpture is titled after a different month of the year – i.e. “War in January,” “War in February,”.

Links

• Artist's website