Contemporary Abstract Oil on Canvas Painting "Nostalghia (For Andrei Tarkovsky)" by Yari Ostovany

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Oil on canvas.

Edition: Unique, Unframed.

Informed by a variety of different cultures, Ostovany feels a connection to multiple separate … Read more Oil on canvas.

Edition: Unique, Unframed.

Informed by a variety of different cultures, Ostovany feels a connection to multiple separate and yet complementary mystical traditions.

He looks toward elements of Western and Eastern art, literature, spirituality, poetry and music to create an environment and a mindset conducive to his process, which is connected to Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting.

The inspiration and the point of departure for the series "Fragments of Poetry and Silence" is the poem by John Berger "Dream"

In a pocket of earth
I buried all the accents
of my mother tongue

there they lie
like needles of pine
assembled by ants

one day the stumbling cry
of another wanderer
may set them alight

then warm and comforted
he will hear all night
the truth as lullaby

Yari Ostovany is an Iranian-born American abstract artist. He creates richly textured, layered color field paintings that explore processes of metamorphosis. He has lived in Tehran, Cologne, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Reno. He is currently based in the New York City.

Work by Ostovany are included in many private collections around the world, as well as the collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut, the Pasargad Bank Museum in Tehran, and the Collection of the Art Department of the University of Nevada, Reno.

The paintings Ostovany creates unfold over time, evolving as layers of pigment are added, washed out, covered over, scraped away, dissolved and then more layers added. With each new phase in the process the composition becomes deeper and more luminous. A new painting often begins as a series of calligraphic gestural marks, what Ostovany calls a gestural outburst, inspired by a cognitive/emotional spark. Ostovany then rubs and dilutes the marks, allowing them to meld together with previous marks and layers, coaxing new dimensions of color and texture. The transient nature of the layers becomes embedded into the visual language of the work, evoking a sense of movement and transcendence.

Natural and mystical processes inspire Ostovany. He is attracted to the alchemistical transformation of formal elements like light, color, texture and space into compositions that are more than the sum of their disparate parts. Informed by a variety of different cultures, Ostovany feels a connection to multiple separate and yet complementary mystical traditions. He looks toward elements of Western and Eastern art, literature, spirituality, poetry and music to create an environment and a mindset conducive to his process, which is connected to Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. See less