Yukimuli is a clan name of Baganda Tribe. Her artistry began in early childhood. At the age when most toddlers are eating clay, with red soil and charcoal, child-like clay models, paintings, and murals emerged from her tiny little fingers. Over time, through her own winding journey, these miraculous gifts evolved into a series of the divine, producing the incomparable, known by many today as Barbara L Ashley.
Yukimuli, a current sought after maven, has been described as, “A conduit of art”. She is most recognized for her innate abilities to incorporate, and engineer marriages of medium and texture. When it comes to sculpture, African-Beat music, textile, hardware, performance art, industrial metal, architectural haute couture, or anything in her path, she is uninhibited and unleashed. Amongst the art scene and those who know Yukimuli personally, it is said that she is passionately, and relentlessly in love, with life and art. Upon viewing the work of a polymathic artist such as this, there is an undefinable infinite, vital and palpitating its, infectious, electric nature, flowing life through its own veins. In short, a true artist has entered the building, folks.If one asks Ashley how an individual comes to have arrived in such a place, she will say, she is just passing through, humbly smile.
Her dear mother, who worked tirelessly as a seamstress back in her country, Uganda. In a place and time, when mothers insisted their daughters to take the roads of life, seemingly paved, for security rather than passion, and thrived, becoming one of the youngest, female self-taught artist of her genre, to emerge from Makerere.
Yukimuli owned, the spark of promise in her eyes, the prayer on her lips, and a tailor-made African smile, genuine and contagious to those who met her path. In making the ultimate aligning sacrifice, Yukimuli is familiar with a kind of creative climactic rebirth that
Propels transforms and refines the True Artist. The rest is still history in the making.
exhibitions in circulation, artist in residency projects, as well as continuing to receive numerous awards, including Kampala’s National Discoveries Award for her Turifanya Art installation.
Yukimuli has been recognized by the state of California, as one of the most talented, relevant, up and coming Fashion Icons of our error.
One of Ugandan woman artist ever commissioned for The Government of Rwanda’s State House, located in Urugwiro, Rwanda for The President of Rwanda, a Life-Sized work.
With two of her siblings, Ashley founded, The KANN Artists Group http://kannartists.com
non-profit of young artists leading the grassroots movement in their “beloved” country Uganda. The Group raises money to initiate art programs for the youth. KANNs most successful project yet is, “Commonwealth”, in which artists not only met with Top Officials of Ugandan Government
(.CHOGM), but Ashley was commissioned for Uganda’s famous monument “The Stride”. The young artists were able to voice their concerns regarding the need for government-funded art programs in Ugandan schools. Displayed proudly near Uganda’s Parliament district, the breathtaking timeless copper work, “The Stride”, was officially commissioned by, The Ministry of Tourism, Trade, and Industry and titled the “Most modern visual of Uganda’s progressive culture”.
Our motto is: I am who I am