Omer Udvin, born in 1999, is a young Israeli artist diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. For him, painting is a meaningful window to the world, allowing him to express himself in ways he is ordinarily unable to. Art is the twist in Omer’s endless journey of coping with autism. As a young boy, Omer objected even to holding a pen in his hand. Suddenly at the age of 8, he began to secretly draw just for himself to see. Only when he felt more confident with himself did he start sharing his artwork with his immediate family.
“As an artist diagnosed on the autistic spectrum, art is my primary way to express myself and the way I experience life. To me, Colors, paint, and brushes are the keys to share my feelings and give others access to my inner world. When words fail, art speaks,” says Omer
His extraordinary drawing abilities were discovered only at the age of 17, and since then, despite his young age, he has developed a unique artistic style of his own and a personal artistic imprint. His paintings are characterized by their abstraction, daring bold color palettes, and naive-optimistic perception and view of our world. Omer’s artistic work is influenced by expressionist modern artists such as Amedeo Modigliani, Egon Schiele, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, and more. Correspondingly, Omer is inspired by his great fondness for old cartoons and animation.
Omer works with various techniques, mainly acrylic paints on canvas, watercolors, and mixed media using fabrics. “My work process always faces me with one of the things that have always been extremely difficult for me: making choices. For me, making choices is accompanied by great difficulty and anxiety, but when I paint, making choices becomes easier,” Omer says. “After I paint the first layer of the painting, I paint all the details in my signature ‘dots and stripes’ technique. Most of my works are composed of dots (influenced by ‘Pointillism’) and stripes, which requires a lot of precision and patience, but also makes me feel safe, calm, and in control.”
Despite his young age, Omer has already exhibited his paintings in many exhibitions, including “Chabba” Art Gallery in Herzlia-2017, the International Exhibition for Naïve Art in Haifa 2018, the Israeli Art Exhibition- 2018 of Bank Hapoalim, a two-artist exhibition at Lemon-Frame Gallery- 2018, a well-known gallery in Tel Aviv with great success and full spread recognition, an exhibition at the President’s Residence held on International Autism Day 2019, and his paintings were also selected to be exhibited at SWISS ART-EXPO 2019 as part of the ARTBOX GALLERY PROJECT. In 2020, Omer was awarded the “Artist of the Future Award” by the Contemporary Art Curator Magazine. He also participated in the “FRESHPAINT ART FAIR” in Tel Aviv in October 2021. Omer’s artworks are regularly showcased at Lemon-Frame Gallery and are sold in Israel and around the world.
“For me, art is the main way I manage to feel as equal, be proud of myself, and share my inner world, a world rich of bright colors, images and endless details,” says Omer Udvin