Yari Ostovany

Conference of the birds no 40 (Abstract painting)

2002

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 and is currently based in New York City. 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. 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. Ostovany’s works 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.