Meyer Uranovsky

Meyer Uranovsky was born in 1939 in Cape Town, South Africa, to Russian immigrant parents. He studied at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art from 1956 to 1960, where he developed a strong foundation in drawing and printmaking.Uranovsky worked as a graphic designer in Cape Town, Johannesburg and London, an experience that informed the graphic clarity and compositional strength evident in his later work.

In 1966, he was awarded the Cape Salon Prize and held his first solo exhibition at the Wolpe Gallery in Cape Town later that same year. He continued his studies internationally, attending Atelier 17 in Paris between 1968 and 1969, supported by a bursary he had received the previous year. This period further refined his approach to printmaking and expanded his engagement with experimental techniques.

Uranovsky has exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions throughout his career, including presentations at Die Kunskamer in Cape Town, in Nice, France, and in his adopted home of New York City, where he has resided since 1996. His work, which spans painting, drawing and printmaking, is often characterised by a strong graphic sensibility and an engagement with the human figure, reflecting broader social and cultural themes.