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 a 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, New York and Reno. He now lives and works in San Francisco.