Yari Ostovany
Artist Statement
My work is process based and improvisational, straddling the nebulous realm between the mystical and the mysterious and thus, to me, the spiritual. A personal journey of exploration through the alchemy of paint, color, light, texture and the poetics of space.
I am interested in the crossing point of the unconscious, the personal and the collective, and energies that come to surface from the interplay of primordial contradictory forces—those within and without—on the surface of the painting. An unfolding evolutionary process through densely layered organic compositions made over time with layers upon layers of thick and thin washes and glazes, luminous and opaque. Often starting with calligraphic gestural marks, solid forms which then dissolve as the layers explode and implode, are added, rubbed out, re—applied, scoured into and scraped away. Going back and forth until another dimension—a sense of resonance— arises, when the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts, where forms and marks become metaphors for a transcendent reality.
My work also has to do with the dichotomy of light and gravity and the search for, and intimation of Lux Æterna, self-generating light rather than one coming from an external source, implying the idea of spiritual energy other than the optical reality we see.
I approach painting as the visual evidence of, and not a report on, an experience; not a representation of spiritual energy but a translation of it into light and texture, navigating the space between stasis and movement, between emergence and disappearance.
Each series has its origin in a cognitive/emotional spark, an experience used as a point of departure, where gestural outbursts, atmospheric passages and the ethereal coalesce, with a blending of intellection and intuition, to perhaps bring together unfinished inventories of fragments and detritus of states of formation – the liminal states.
Connecting to a greater energy by using the energy of the gravity of the earth to push and move paint until the distinctions between the foreground and the background and the spatial hierarchy melt away and disappear and the ephemeral begins to emerge.
An archiving process having to do with psychic geology and, somewhat akin to layers of memory – giving way to another, ephemeral sense of form and visual phenomena, dealing with an interiority as opposed to an exterior reality.
I see abstraction as representational insofar as it is a representation of a psychic state, not an external reality. The trajectories in contemporary painting in which my work belongs range from Abstract Expressionism in the west to Persian and Taoist/Zen aesthetic sensibilities in the east and other perennial visionary paths of wisdom.
Selected Exhibitions Solo Exhibitions
2024 Radian Gallery, San Francisco, CA
la Galerie du Génie de la Bastille, Paris, France Lansing Street Gallery, Mendocino, CA
2023 NoonPowell Fine Art, London, UK Chromate, Oakland, CA
2022 Lansing Street Gallery, Mendocino, CA Rebecca Molayem Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Gallerie Valerie, Crockett,CA
2020 Joyce Gordon Gallery, Oakland, CA
2019 The Yard – Columbus Circle, New York, NY
2018 Far Out Gallery, San Francisco, CA Syra Arts Gallery, Washington D.C.
The Living Room Gallery (Saint Peter’s Church), New York, NY Rebecca Molayem Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Aria Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Ruby Living Design, Mill Valley, CA
2016 Ligne Roset, San Francisco, CA B&B&Co Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Mill Valley Arts Commission, Mill Valley, CA
2015 Aria Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Stanford Art Spaces, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
2014 Vorres Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Red Mountain Gallery, TMCC , Reno, NV The Shed Contemporary, Dana Point, CA LA Artcore, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Market Street Gallery, San Francisco, CA Ligne Roset, San Francisco, CA
2012 Art People Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2011 Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, CA 2010 Queen Gallery, Toronto, Canada
| 2009 | San Jose City College Art Gallery, San Jose, CA |
| 2007 | Northwest Reno Library, Reno, NV |
| 2003 | Art Corner Gallery, Cologne, Germany |
| 2002 | Bochum Kulturrat (City of Bochum Cultural Center), Germany |
| 1998 | Hourian Gallery, San Francisco, CA |
| 1997 | Other Art Gallery, Southern Oregon State College, Ashland, OR |
| 1994 | Footwork Gallery, San Francisco, CA |
| 1989 | Walter McNamara (SxN) Gallery, Reno, NV |
| 1988 | Manville Gallery, Reno, NV |
Two Person Exhibitions
| 2022 | Ruby Living Design, Mill Valley, CA |
| 2016 | Madrigal Family Winery Gallery, Sausalito, CA |
| 2015 | MiM Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2014 | Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY |
| 2013 | Haleh Gallery, Berg am Starnberger See, Germany |
Group Exhibitions
2025 Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2024 Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA the ALIX Gallery, Palm Springs, CA
Sahar K. Boluki Fine Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, NY
Arc Gallery, San Francisco, CA MKM Gallery, Berlin, Germany Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY
2023 Borrego Art Institute, Borrego Spring, CA the ALIX Gallery, Palm Springs, CA Radian Gallery, San Francisco, CA Tieton Arts and Humanities, Tieton, WA GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA
Sausalito Center For The Arts, Sausalito, CA
Frank Bette Center For the Arts, Alameda, California Gallery 2727, Berkeley, California
Orangeland Gallery, San Francisco, CA Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA
2022 NoonPowell Fine Art, London, UK Gallery 2727, Berkeley, California
2021 Mura Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Lansing Street Gallery, Mendocino, CA
2020 Ruby Living Design, San Francisco, CA Terra Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Bortolami Gallery, New York, NY White Walls Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Ruby Living Design, Mill Valley, CA Boccara ART, Brooklyn, New York, NY
The Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, NY
2018 Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Saye Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA
2017 Kamil Art Gallery, Monaco-Ville, Monaco GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA
Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel, CA Museum Parc, San Francisco, CA
Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016 Galerie Art Eterne, New Delhi, India Cabrillo Gallery, Aptos, CA
Foundry Art Centre, Saint Charles, Missouri Hud Gallery, Ventura, CA
Seyhoun Gallery, West Hollywood, CA Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY Buckham Gallery, Flint, MI
Vorres Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA
2015 LA Artcore, Los Angeles, CA
Maryland Federation of Art – Circle Gallery, Annapolis, MD Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, NY Frank Juarez Gallery, Sheboygan, WI Main Street Arts, Clifton Springs, New York Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY
Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2014 The Invisible Line Gallery, London, UK Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, OR Arta Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Shirin Gallery NY, New York, NY
The SHED Contemporary, Dana Point, CA Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA
ABRA Gallery, Westlake Village, CA Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, NY
| Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA | |
| 2013 | Selby Gallery, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL |
| Vorres Gallery, San Francisco, CA | |
| 1337 Gallery, San Rafael, CA | |
| Thomas & Paul Gallery, London, UK | |
| Misho Gallery, San Francisco, CA | |
| Orange County Center For Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA | |
| Estense Castle Museum, Ferrara, Italy | |
| 2011 | ArtPeople Gallery, San Francisco, CA |
| Arts West Gallery, Elon, North Carolina | |
| 2010 | Gallery 133, Toronto, Canada |
| 2009 | California State University, Fullerton Grand Central Art Center |
| Vision Gallery, Chandler, Arizona | |
| 2008 | Galleria Lallihome, Varenna, Italy |
| 2007 | la Giornata del Contemporaneo, Camaver Kunsthaus, Lecco, Italy |
| Sierra Arts Gallery, Reno, NV | |
| 2006 | Sheppard Contemporary, Reno, NV |
| 2003 | HotHouse Center for Performance & Exhibition, Chicago, IL |
| 2002 | Mojaveri Gallery, Cologne, Germany |
| 2001 | Kunsthof Merten, Merten, Germany |
| 2000 | Köln Galerie, Cologne, Germany |
| Aria Gallery, Tehran, Iran | |
| 1999 | Ovissi Gallery, Emeryville, CA |
| Niavaran Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran | |
| WORKS Gallery, San Jose, CA | |
| Eklektikos Gallery, Washington, DC | |
| 1997 | Evolving Perceptions, National Press Club, Washington, DC |
| San Jose City College, San Jose, CA | |
| Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA | |
| 1996 | Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA |
| 1995 | Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA |
| 1994 | Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA |
| Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA | |
| 1993 | Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, CA |
| Walter/McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA | |
| 1992 | San Francisco Art Institute Spring Exhibition, CA |
| 1991 | Dow & Frosini Gallery, Berkeley, CA |
| 1990 | E. L. Wiegand Museum of Art, Reno, NV |
| 1989 | Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, NV |
| 1988 | Ackerman Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA |
| Nevada State Council on the Arts, Reno, NV | |
| 1987 | Walter McNamara (SxN) Gallery, Reno, NV |
| 1986 | Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV |
Education
MFA San Francisco Art Institute, Painting 1995 BFA San Francisco Art Institute, Painting 1992
Awards & Grants
2023 Ara Jo Memorial Fund 2023
2022 Center for Cultural Innovation Grant
2007 Sierra Arts Endowment Grant
1993 Annual San Francisco Art Institute Student Exhibition 1989, 1988 Craig Sheppard Memorial Art Scholarship 1988 Home Federal Bank Art Competition, Reno, Nevada 1988 Sierra Nevada Arts Foundation Grant, Reno, Nevada
1988, 1987, 1986 Annual University of Nevada – Reno Student Art Exhibition
Art Fairs
| 2024 | Aguttes Auction House, Paris (Neuilly-sur-Seine), France |
| Battersea Art Fair, London, UK | |
| 2023 | Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, Miami, Florida |
| Battersea Art Fair, London, UK | |
| Hampstead Art Fair, London, UK | |
| 2022 | Hamptons Fine Art Fair, Southampton, New York |
| Battersea Art Fair, London, UK | |
| 2018 | Art Market San Francisco |
| 2014 | Battersea Art Fair, London, UK |
Artist in Residence
2018 Chateau Orquevaux, Orquevaux, France
Collections
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut John & Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada Pasargad Bank Museum, Tehran, Iran
and various private collections in the U.S. and abroad
Teaching Experience
2005/08 Adjunct Faculty, University of Nevada – Reno Art Department, Reno,
Nevada
1993/92 Assistant Instructor, Painting & Drawing, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California