Kim Uchiyama was born in Des Moines, IA and lives and works in New York. She studied at Drake University, Yale Summer School of Art and Music and the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture.
Color acts as light in Uchiyama’s paintings to construct a visceral sense of place, characterized by simple relationships of form such as those found in ancient classical orders. Recent solo exhibitions include Helm Contemporary, New York, The Lobby Gallery at 499 Park Avenue, Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, New York, and Spazio Contemporaneo Agora’, Palermo, IT.
Uchiyama’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, ARTnews, The Brooklyn Rail, The New Criterion, The Hudson Review, The Hopkins Review, Artcritical.com, Two Coats of Paint, and Hyperallergic Magazine. She is a New York Foundation for the Arts recipient, two-time MacDowell fellow, current studio resident at Art Cake, Brooklyn, and member of American Abstract Artists.
In the Studio with Kim Uchiyama, directed and produced by Art Talks
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Helm Contemporary, New York, NY
2022-23 499 Park Avenue, The Lobby Gallery, New York, NY
2021 Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY
2019 John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY
2019 Spazio Contemporaneo Agora’, Palermo, Italy
2014 Fox Gallery, New York, NY
2013 Headwater Contemporary, Telluride, CO
2013 John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY
2012 Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, Bridgehampton, NY
2010 Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York, NY
2008 John Davis Gallery, Hudson, NY
2008 Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2000 Percival Galleries, Des Moines, IA
1994 Penine Hart Gallery, New York, NY
1990 Cedarcrest College, Allentown, PA
1989 John Davis Gallery, New York, NY
1988 Leslie Cecil Gallery, New York, NY
1986 John Davis Gallery, Akron, OH
1985 Leslie Cecil Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
New York Women Abstract Painters, Sarah Moody Gallery, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 2025
Beautiful Land: Ken Buhler and Kim Uchiyama, Anderson Gallery, Drake University, Des Moines, IA, 2024
Beautiful Land: Ken Buhler and Kim Uchiyama, Wege Art Center at MIU, Fairfield, IA, 2024
Under the Sun, Furnace Art on Paper Archive, Falls Village, CT
All Tomorrow’s Parties, M. David Gallery at Art Cake, Brooklyn, NY, 2024
New Math, Equity Gallery, New York, NY, 2023
On Balance, Art Cake, Brooklyn, NY, 2023
Blurring Boundaries: Continuity to Change, Women of AAA from 1937 to 2017, California Center for the Arts, Escondido, CA, 2023
Blurring Boundaries: Continuity to Change, Women of AAA from 1937 to 2017, Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT, 2023
Soft Geometry, New Collectors Gallery, New York, NY, 2022
Unfurled, 1GAP, Brooklyn, NY, curator: David Cohen, 2021
Blurring Boundaries: Continuity to Change, Women of AAA from 1937 to 2017, The Baker Museum, Naples, FL, 2021
Side to Side, Three Ways, Key Projects @ Trestle Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, 2020
Blurring Boundaries: Continuity to Change, Women of AAA from 1937 to 2017, Ewing Gallery, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 2018
Color Perspective, The Curator Gallery, New York, NY, 2017
Band, The Painting Center, New York, NY, 2016
Chromatic Space, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, BMCC, New York, NY, 2016
The Onward of Art, 1285 Avenue of the Americas Art Gallery, NY, 2016
Freak Flag, Brian Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 2014
Paper Band, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY, 2012
Edward R. Broida: A Collector On The Edge, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, TX, 2008
First Person, Gallery Schlesinger, New York, NY, 2004
The Homecoming Exhibition: 29 Artists Born in Iowa, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, curator: Eleanor Heartney, 1987
Selected Publications
Kee, Christina. “Beautiful Land: Paintings by Ken Buhler and Kim Uchiyama”, Exhibition Catalogue, September 2024.
American Abstract Artists. “Past/Present, American Abstract Artist Members Honor Their Predecessors”, Journal 6, 2023.
Birmingham, Mary. “On Balance, New Work by American Abstract Artists”, Exhibition Catalogue, May 2023.
Wilkin, Karen. “Kim Uchiyama Introduced”, Photo Essay, The Hopkins Review, Winter 2023.
Wei, Lilly. “Kim Uchiyama: Heat and Shadow”, Exhibition Catalogue, September 2022.
Micchelli, Thomas. “Kim Uchiyama: Arcadia”, Exhibition Catalogue, May 2019.
Buhmann, Stephanie. “New York Studio Conversations, Part II”, The Green Box, Berlin, May 2018.
Wilkin, Karen. “The Onward of Art: American Abstract Artists 80th Anniversary Exhibition”, Exhibition Catalogue, 2016.
Wei, Lilly. “Kim Uchiyama: Archaeo”, Exhibition Catalogue, 2010.
Heartney, Eleanor. “Toward An Expanded Regionalism”, Artists Born In Iowa: The Homecoming Exhibition, Exhibition Catalogue Essay, 1986.
Selected Reviews and Articles
Wilkin, Karen. “Kim Uchiyama: Loggia”, The Hudson Review, Autumn 2024.
Gordon, Dana. “Kim Uchiyama: Phalanxes & Temples”, The New Criterion, June 2024.
Stevenson, Jonathan. “Kim Uchiyama: Life in Space”, Two Coats of Paint, June 26, 2024.
Yau, John. "Kim Uchiyama Captures the Light of Sicily", Hyperallergic, July 19, 2023.
Brennan, Michael. “Kim Uchiyama’s Quasi-Sacred Spaces”, Two Coats of Paint, November 4, 2022.
Panero, James. “Gallery Chronicle”, The New Criterion, November 2022.
Wilkin, Karen. “Kim Uchiyama: Interludes”, The Hudson Review, Autumn 2021.
Wilkin, Karen. “Side to Side, Three Ways”, The Hudson Review, Winter 2021.
Newhall, Edith. “Stripes -The Whole Idea”, for American Abstract Artists, February 1, 2021.
Nathanson, Jill. “Kim Uchiyama: Ascension”, Delicious Line, September 30, 2019.
Clements, Alexis. “Muddying the Circumscribed Myth of Abstraction”, Hyperallergic, December 11, 2015.
McClemont, Doug. “Kim Uchiyama: Archaeo”, ARTNews, November 2010.
Panero, James. “Kim Uchiyama: Archaeo”, The New Criterion, October 2010.
Buhmann, Stephanie. “Kim Uchiyama: Archaeo”, The Brooklyn Rail, October 2010.
Panero, James. “Color Time Space”, The New Criterion, October 2009.
Wei, Lilly, “Kim Uchiyama and Joanne Freeman”, ARTNews, December 2008.
Riley, Jennifer. “Abstract Attention”, artcritical.com, editor: David Cohen, December 2006.
Johnson, Ken. “First Person”, The New York Times, January 2, 2004.
Incisa, Monica. “Edward Broida: A Passion for Collecting the New”, The International Edition of the Journal of Art, January 1989.
Curatorial Projects
Headspace, Morris-Warren Gallery, New York, NY, with Amanda Church and Izam Zawhara, 2016
Freak Flag, Brian Morris Midtown, New York, NY, 2014
Physical Property, Brian Morris Gallery, New York, NY, 2013
Color-Time-Space, Rosenberg Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, with Joanne Freeman, 2010
Color-Time-Space, Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York, NY, with Joanne Freeman, 2009
Color-Time-Space, Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, with Joanne Freeman, 2009
Published Writing
James Nelson: Breaking and Entering, Two Coats of Paint, February 29, 2024
Beyond Time: Brice Marden’s Last Paintings, Two Coats of Paint, December 20, 2023
Michael Brennan’s Moving Images: In Conversation with Kim Uchiyama, Two Coats of Paint, November 10, 2023
Jill Nathanson’s Primal Synesthesia, Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, Two Coats of Paint, January 27, 2021
Specific Forms, Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, Two Coats of Paint, February 4, 2020
Competitive Collaboration: Frankenthaler & Motherwell at Mnuchin Gallery, New York, Artcritical.com, December 14, 2019
Selected Grants, Awards, Fellowships
2024-26 Art Cake Studio Residency
2012 Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Auvillar, France
2010 The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
2009 The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
2007 The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
2006 BAU Institute, Otranto, IT
1994 The New York Foundation for the Arts Painting Fellowship
Education
New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture
Yale Summer School of Art & Music, Norfolk, CT
Drake University, Des Moines, IA and Florence, IT