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:
