A CLOSER NIRVANA
Yari Ostovany & David Syre
June 10 – September 14, 2019
SARAHCROWN is pleased to announce A Closer Nirvana, a two-person exhibition with works by Yari Ostovany and David Syre. The project is conceived for the public spaces at The Yard: Columbus Circle as part of the Art In Lobbies Program. The installation, spanning three floors, will feature a selection of recent paintings by both artists and will run from June 10 until September 14, 2019. The opening reception will be held on June 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
A Closer Nirvana features paintings and drawings that are born out of an attentive spiritual practice, meditation, and the experience of other states of consciousness. The works invite to a deceleration and contemplation of a slow process of fruition where the viewer can encounter form, surface, colors, shapes, and, most of all, the relationship of stillness and motion to each other.
The paintings Ostovany creates unfold over time, evolving slowly as layers of pigment are added, washed out, covered over, scraped away, and dissolved before more layers are then added. Natural and mystical processes inspire Ostovany. He is attracted to the alchemystical 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.
Syre’s work bears witness to his evolving psyche and internal dialogue. It is spontaneous and manifests as an intuitive offering. The search for spirituality marks his artistic research and life’s journey. Syre has studied yoga for twenty years, is an active member of the Burning Man community, and is devoted to forging a path towards a universal union and truth. Syre is a prolific artist, and his working methods are almost ritualistic. An avid observer of his surroundings, Syre depicts nature and people, mixing reality and emotions into an energetic play of simple lines and colors, rendered in a style that is decidedly and uniquely his own.
The work of both artists is process-based and improvisational, both expressing internal impulses rather than figuratively describing situations from reality. Their art practices reside in the nebulous realm between the mystical and the mysterious. Their works invite the viewer to take a moment to rest and reflect, to momentarily let go of all thoughts and expectations and to have a closer look at Nirvana, that concept of happiness and total emotional freedom we all know yet don’t experience often enough.
For more information, please contact:
info@sarahcrown.com / www.sarahcrown.com
Opening: June 10, 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Exhibition: June 10 – September 14, 2019
Location: The Yard: Columbus Circle, New York NY
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born in Iran in 1962, Yari Ostovany moved to the United States at the age of 16 and pursued his studies in art, first at the University of Nevada, Reno and then at the San Francisco Art Institute, where he received his MFA in 1995. He has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally and is the recipient of Sierra Arts Endowment Grant, Craig Sheppard Memorial Grant, and Sierra Nevada Arts Foundation Grant. Recent solo exhibitions include Stanford Art Spaces at Stanford University, Far Out Gallery in San Francisco, Rebecca Molayem Gallery in Los Angeles, and Aria Gallery in Tehran, Iran.
His work is in the permanent collections of institutions that include the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, Connecticut; Pasargad Bank Museum in Tehran, Iran; and Permanent Collection of the University of Nevada, Reno Art Department. He is represented by Foundation Behram Bakhtiar in France; Artscoops in Lebanon; Brave Art Consulting in Santa Fe; and Art Represent, Emergeast, and Ideel Art in London, UK. Yari Ostovany currently lives and works in New York City.
David Syre lives and works in Bellingham, WA. His large-scale acrylic paintings, drawings, sculptures, and art installations are inspired by travel, his subconscious mind, and nature. Syre is self-taught and creates work at an accelerated pace, embracing bold lines and brave colors. Archetypal symbols and numbers often appear as images alongside words referencing the moment of creation. He is an artist whose worldview is informed by personal transformation.
Syre is currently working on several interdisciplinary projects including a large-scale art installation titled We Are One, to be located at the start of The Peace Trail, a 150-mile trail he is constructing in Tierra del Fuego at the southernmost extreme of the South American continent.
Syre has exhibited internationally, including in Nice, France (May 2018); Santa Fe, New Mexico (September 2018); Buenos Aires, Argentina (November 2018); and, most recently, in Bellingham, Washington (April 2019) for the opening of Gallery Syre. Upcoming exhibitions include New York, NY (June 2019), Hamburg, Germany (July 2019), and Copenhagen, Denmark (September 2019). The opening of The Peace Trail and We Are One is anticipated for December 2020.
