Image: Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans
Ferrara Showman Gallery is presenting ‘I Can Buy Myself Flowers’, the first solo exhibition it has devoted to Bonn, Germany-based painter Wencke Uhl. The exhibition forms part of the New Orleans gallery’s seasonal online-exclusive series and is available virtually from 1 July through 30 September 2026. Selected paintings are also being installed on a rotating basis at the gallery during the run, although the exhibition itself is designated as online only.
The presentation centres on Uhl’s most recent series of portraits, which the gallery describes as floral, fashion-forward and feminist. The works place portraiture alongside bouquets and patterned clothing, using flowers not simply as decorative motifs but as elements connected to questions of identity, agency and self-definition.
Uhl has described the series as an exploration of “emancipation, self-empowerment, and inherent self-worth.” Its title refers to the idea of buying flowers for oneself rather than receiving them as a romantic gesture. In the artist’s account, the shift challenges assumptions that personal value is conferred through relationships and instead frames self-worth as something independently defined.
The paintings also address the social meaning traditionally attached to flowers. Uhl notes that flowers have often been given to women, men and members of the LGBTQ+ community as gestures that can implicitly communicate or prescribe value. By making the act self-directed, the series repositions the bouquet as an expression of individual choice rather than relationship-dependent status.
Formally, Uhl has chosen to render the figures in black and white, a decision she says is intended to underline the universal dimension of the subject. The patterns of the women’s dresses correspond to their bouquets, linking the visual language of clothing and flowers. In the artist’s description, this relationship presents beauty as part of identity rather than as a passive ornament.
Uhl first appeared in Ferrara Showman Gallery’s ‘27th Annual NO DEAD ARTISTS International Exhibition of Contemporary Art’ in 2023. The gallery says it has since continued to work with her and place her paintings with collectors, including actresses in New York and interior designers in Azerbaijan. The current exhibition extends that relationship into a focused presentation of her latest portrait series.
Ferrara Showman Gallery is located at 400A Julia Street in New Orleans and lists regular hours of Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in addition to appointments. ‘I Can Buy Myself Flowers’ remains online through 30 September 2026, with rotating selected works presented physically at the gallery throughout the exhibition period.
