Amalia Ulman

Amalia Ulman is an Argentinian born Spanish artist, working across mediums, including poetry, graphic design, video, iOS mobile uploads, painting, and installation. Raised in Spain, she graduated in 2011 from CSM in London.^{[1] [2]}

Early life

Ulman was born in Argentina in 1989. Her father owned a skateboarding factory before they moved to Spain.

Art and Works

Her work deals with issues of class, gender, and sexuality. Ulman is particularly interested in middlebrow aesthetics; rather than the aesthetics of the extreme, she discusses that which goes unnoticed in a world of internalized normative behaviors.

In 2014 Amalia Ulman started “Excellences & Perfections,” a four month durational performance taking place directly on her personal Instagram.^[3] In "Excellences & Perfections" Amalia Ulman fabricated a fictional character whose story unfolded in three different episodes. "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." (Francesca Gavin, Kaleidoscope, 2015).

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." (Ulman, Vulture 2014) ^[4]

In 2012, Amalia presented Profit | Decay, show with Katja Novitskona 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. ^[5]

In October 2014,during Frieze Art Fair, Amalia Ulman presented her London solo show "The Destruction of Experience" at Evelyn Yard.

For the show Ulman made 'The Future Ahead', a video - essay about Justin Bieber's growth from angelic teenager to hetero-normative white male. ^[6]

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,”. ^{[7] [8]}

Amalia Ulman currently lives between Los Angeles, London and Gijón. ^[9]

References

http://ltdlosangeles.com/AU_CV.pdf https://www.textezurkunst.de/97/edmonson-killing-in-the-name/ http://amaliaulman.eu/Amalia Ulman https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ld0yQIgqA-ejlVbzgzNzFWeGs/edi http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/how-amalia-ulman-became-an-instagram-celebrity.html