Mychajlo Urban

UIMA co-founder Mychajlo Urban was a distinguished painter and sculptor. He studied at the University of Illinois, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Notre Dame, where he received his MFA in 1972.

Urban’s work uses strong geometric elements and contrasting colors and his use of line and shape evokes organic forms. In 1973, Walter M. Martin, then curator of the College Art Collection at Concordia College, said of Urban’s work, 

“To understand the wood sculpture of Mychajlo Urban is to understand these two different views of it’s three dimensionality. On the one hand, we can consider the assemblage of wood pieces that inhabit space, that exist inside a sculpture boundary. The character, proportional relations and spatial arrangements of these basic forms indicate this ancient three dimensionality. On the other hand, we can consider the ways in which these 20th century sculptures enter into relationship with space—extending into it, enfolding it—articulation of the space outside the basic wood components of Urban’s sculpture. Henry Moore, the brilliant English sculptor, unifies both views when he speaks of “full spatial completeness.” And so is the unity of the spatial abstract sculpture of Mychajlo Urban.”

Recognizing the lack of resources afforded to Ukrainian artists, Urban and Konstantin Milonadis sought to create an outlet for staging art exhibitions, which led to the creation of Vasah in 1965, a group of Ukrainian American artists committed to modernism, and in 1971, the creation of UIMA. UIMA’s establishment resulted from the increasing demand for visibility among immigrant and other artists sidelined by the mainstream art world.