|
|
|
|
|
|
Artist Exhibitions:
You will find exhibition
history here:
http://www.opus125.org/ostovany
/exhibitions
...
Further Information
|
|
Artist Galleries:
Coming Soon!
|
|
Artist Reviews:
You will find reviews of Yari
Ostovany's work here:
http://www.opus125.org/ostovany
/reviews...
Further Information
|
|
Collections:
Permanent Collection of the
University of Nevada - Reno
Art Department and various
private collections in the
U.S., Europe and Asia....
Further Information
|
|
Commissions:
Coming Soon!
|
|
|
Artist Statement for Yari Ostovany
|
|
|
My work is a personal journey of exploration into the realm of the spiritual through the alchemy of paint, color, light, texture and the poetics of space. My paintings are records of this intuitive journey.
My paintings are densely layered compositions made over time with numerous layers of think and thin washes and glazes. I start with calligraphic-based gestural marks, solid forms and shapes which then begin to disintegrate as the layers explode and implode, are added, rubbed out, re-applied, scoured into and scraped away and built back up until the distinctions between the foreground and the background and the spatial hierarchy begin to dissolve - somewhat akin to layers of memory - and give way to another, ephemeral sense of form and visual phenomena.
I approach my work in the studio with as much of a Zen beginner's mind as possible, quieting the mind, connecting to a greater energy and using the energy of the gravity of the earth to push and move paint. What interests me is the unfolding, evolutionary process and the in between states; the states of formation/transformation. The paintings are intimate and grand in scale at the same time, alluding both to a microcosmic and macrocosmic scale.
I work in series and each series has its origin in a cognitive/emotional spark, an experience which is used as a point of departure. The different series are ongoing and expand at their own pace. It may take a new painting in a series ten years to come up while other series continue to evolve and expand more at a faster tempo.
I am interested in the primordial energies that come to surface from the interplay of contradictory forces - those of the within and the without - on the surface of the painting. Layers of vibrant colors over deep textures, gestural abstraction and forms and atmospheric passages where forms and marks become metaphors for a transcendental reality. In these atmospheric abstractions I look for a sense of resonance, not a representation of the spiritual energy but a translation of it into light and texture, navigating the space between stasis and movement, between emergence and disappearance.
I use squeegees, spray bottles, a bamboo Wok cleaning brush and an array of other non-traditional as well as traditional tools to make marks and to push paint around. I lay down numerous thin glazes and washes of color, allowing each to dry before the next is applied. The technique is time-consuming, but creates rich textures, depth and luminescence.
The paintings take anywhere from several weeks to several years to complete. I usually work on multiple pieces at the same time so there are always some pieces that are in the early stages, some that are in the middle stages and some that are nearly finished. They shift around though and are almost never chronological.
Living in the space between two cultures, I am interested in investigating the nomadic in-between spaces: between emergence and disappearance, between the solid and the void and the mechanics of a symbiotic relationship between Persian Art and Western Art. The former being my innate orientation and the later the tradition in which I have been trained. My interest lies not so much in a synthesis of styles but rather in an epistemological approach; to dismantle those visual vocabularies to their most bare and abstract cultural elements and sensibilities, using this as a point of departure and ending up in (and moving more and more towards) a terrain that lies in between the musical and the architectural.
|
|
contact artist
