From Russia, with love: Yuri Yurov opens Morris studio

 By Marie Pfeifer

Walking into Yuri Yurov’s  new studio in Boonton was a sensory delight last weekend. His eclectic mix of paintings, photographs, giclée (zhee-clay) prints, ceramics and sculptures took the entire evening to drink in. I’m sure a return visit will be equally rewarding

One of Yuri’s colorful giclée creations depicts a beautiful young woman sitting in a chair with her foot poised on the body of one of Yuri’s students, Chris Preston.

“The artwork has a quality reminiscent of Russian fairy tale images,” Leslie Raff, a Morristown visitor at the studio’s opening reception, said of Yuri’s giclées. The term refers to a process that turns paintings into photographic images superimposed on canvas.

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The fairy tale observation is on the mark: Yuri was born in the Russian town of Voronezh in 1961 and emigrated to the U.S. in the early ’90s with little more than a backpack and an easel, according to his Russian-born wife, Irina, who he met in the U.S.

Irina is Yuri’s biggest fan. Years ago, she insisted her husband quit working as a fabric designer so he could turn out more  paintings.

Sophia Skeans of the Rockaway Artists Alliance in New York, has known Yuri for years and described him as a master artist. She talked about his black and white photography.

Yuri’s talent for capturing the inner spirit of his subject is evident in a photograph of a street musician that hangs in the studio. The artist photographed many members of the Rockaway Artists Alliance, in the Queens section of New York, in a room equipped with a single chair, according to Sophia.

 

The collection of 145 photographs was exhibited in 2010 in a show called Rockaway Artists Unframed.  That same year, Yuri was part of a large exhibition at Morristown’s Atrium Gallery.  Although the Yurovs live in Denville, for years Yuri commuted to a studio in Rockaway, NY.

About 50 artists and friends from the Rockaway Artists Alliance made the long trip to Boonton to christen Yuri’s new studio on Saturday.

Yuri has exhibited his works worldwide since 1995. Always seeking new challenges, he recently became reacquainted with ceramics. But the sculptures on display in Boonton can’t compete with weird paintings like Nostradamus, which shows a monk-like figure shrouded in red whose eyes are rolled back into his head, and another painting of turtles whose shells have become a showcase for ancient architecture.

The artist will be sharing his expertise at Friday night drawing sessions in his 502 Main St. studio, starting this Friday, Jan. 13. Sessions will run from 7 pm to 10 pm (except on the first Friday of each month, when there is no session) and they will feature live models. The cost is $15. Reservations are required. Call 201-323-6571 or email YURI@YYYUROV.COM by 6 PM on Thursdays.

Yuri Yurov at Morristown’s Atrium: His art spooks his wife, and she wouldn’t have it any other way

Irina Yurov pointed across the fifth floor of Morristown’s Atrium Art Gallery.

“That’s how I knew I liked him,” she said last night. “The first time I saw the red one over there, I fell in love with it. I thought he was so talented, it would be a shame if he didn’t paint.”

The “red one” is a nightmarish jumble of Dante-esque creatures, hatched by the man who became her husband, Yuri Yurov.

It’s called Immersing into Chaos, and it’s the only one of Yuri’s 60 paintings, photos and sculptures displayed in the Morris County records building that is not for sale.

They say that behind every great man stands a great woman, and this couple appears to bear that out.

Irina, a computer programmer, admits that some of her husband’s creations–like his oddly disturbing photo Nostradamus–give her the creeps.

Yet years ago, she insisted Yuri quit a fabric design job so he could crank out more of these things.

What a great wife!

“I am,” Irina agreed.

But then, she added, “he’s a great painter.”

The couple lives in Denville but Yuri, 49, paints in a studio in the Rockaway section of Queens. He has a printing business and also does portrait and wedding photography.

Although he and Irina emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1990, they met in New York.

Yuri was trained at the Academy of the Arts in Moscow in a classic realism style. Today, his works blend surrealism and abstract expressionism, with many surprises.

Look closely at his acrylic mixed-media work Celestial, and you will find a camouflaged portrait of Yuri.  A lot is going on in his pieces: Swirling textures, smooth curves, startling colors.

Satiety looks like an oil by one of the old masters . . . after some bad mushrooms. Bloated diners have a grotesque, Twilight-Zonish air about them, while a pet under the dinner table snarls like the Jersey Devil.

Yuri prefers painting these scenes to explaining them. Perhaps, he said when pressed, the demonic touches stem from painful bouts of rheumatoid arthritis.

Turtles and fish are recurring subjects; what about them?

Turtles, he said, symbolize the structures we erect around ourselves to shield our inner emotions.

As for the fish…

“I’m a Pisces,” Yuri explained. “And I like to fish!”

Yuri’s works are part of an exhibition that fills four floors of the county building, showcasing works by Greg Egan, Pam Gosner, Christine Wagner, John Tetz, Phyllis Boudreaux and the Myhelan Artists Network.

Sponsored by the Arts Council of the Morris Area, the show runs through January 2011.

With any luck, Yuri’s mother, Nina, will find a reason to stay for the whole run.

The 72-year-old widow traveled from Voronezh, Russia, for last night’s opening and whipped up some tasty blintzes.

New Jersey, she said, is “a corner of paradise.”

When it was suggested that perhaps Nina will meet some nice American gentleman during her visit, Irina interjected that such pursuits were not of interest to her mother-in-law.

Au contraire, Nina corrected when this exchange was translated. She is discriminating, however.

Any Jersey suitors, she explained in Russian, must meet two criteria.

“They must be young,” she said with a hearty grin. “And they must be rich!”

MORE IMAGES FROM THE ATRIUM ART GALLERY: