Yari Ostovany

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, implyin...

MFA in Painting . San Francisco Art Institute 1995
BFA in Painting . San Francisco Art Institute 1992

Selected Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2016 Mill Valley Arts Commission, Mill Valley, CA
2015 Aria Gallery, Tehran, Iran

2015 Stanford Art Spaces, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

2014 Vorres Gallery, San Francisco, CA
LA Artcore, Los Angeles, CA

Red Mountain Gallery, TMCC , Reno, NV
2013 Ligne Roset, San Francisco, CA
2013 Market Street Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 ArtPeople 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
South Valleys Library, Reno, NV
2003 Art Corner Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2002 Shambhala Buddhist Meditation Center, Cologne, Germany
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


2014 LA Artcore, Los Angeles, CA 

2014 Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY

2013 Haleh Gallery, Berg am Starnberger See, Germany

Group Exhibitions ...