Stewart Uoo

Uoo was born and raised in California.[7] Uoo graduated from California College of Arts in 2007 and went on to attend the Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany.[8]

Titled Life is Juicy, Uoo's first solo New York exhibition opened at 47 Canal in 2012. The exhibition included three of the artist's signature cyborg mannequins cast in polyurethane resin and woven through with barbed wire and various electronics. The sculptures typically wear clothing worn down by the weather that the artist puts on their roof. Additionally, the exhibition included a video work and several pencil drawings.[9]

In 2014, Uoo had his first exhibition at Galerie Daniel Buchholz in Berlin, Germany, titled No Tears in Rain.[10] The exhibition presented new work by Uoo: security gate sculptures altered with silicone, paint, tufts of human hair and rust. The gates were shown alongside fashion editorial-inspired photographs by Heji Shin and featured DeSe Escobar, Juliana Huxtable, and Eliot Glass.[11]

In 2015, Uoo was selected for the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.[12] His first show in Brazil opened at Mendes Wood in São Paulo.[13] The show was titled Viva La Juicy. Claire Rigby of ArtReview wrote of the show, "There's a moving ruined elegance to the paper objects, in their careful preconstruction of an imagined future world, hacked, garbled artefacts and all, that seems to signal the way forward to something potentially important."[14]

In 2016, the artist received institutional recognition with appearances in MoMA PS1's Greater New York and Human Interest: Portraits of the Whitney’s Collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Later that year, Uoo held a two-person exhibition with mentor Franklin Williams, titled Curtains, at Canal 47.[15] The exhibition included several of Williams' soft sculptures, called moments, that, "often abstract (and obsess over) an idiosyncratic, near-alien biology into a flat, pop symbolism with a spindly, almost arachnid complexity."[16] Alongside Williams' sculptures, Uoo presented similar collaged curtain works made from various sweaters and sweatpants, fleeces, fatigues, and polos. Side-by-side, the works by both artists are difficult to tell apart.[17] The exhibition also included photographs of musician and performer Contessa Stuto as a gallery assistant. The exhibition's press release was written by Stuto and further blurred the lines of artist, artwork, and gallery.[18] Uoo was selected to participate in 9th Berlin Biennale curated by art collective DIS.[19] The Biennale explored a range of contemporary topics including advertising, digital technology, and the Internet.

In late 2017, Uoo had a second solo-exhibition at Canal 47, titled Handmade Paper.[20] The show included several works of handmade paper using a number of materials such as designer shopping bags, cotton, flies, dust, synthetic fibers, and cockroaches. Two cyborg mannequin sculptures were included in the show.

Uoo organizes an annual performance-based event each summer titled It's Gets Better. First staged at Artists Space, New York, the performances have included a range of artists including K8 Hardy, Juliana Huxtable, Jacolby Satterwhite, Ryan Trecartin, and various members from House of Ladosha.[21]