Yuri Yuan
This summer is the second year in which art schools were mostly not able to stage graduate shows or open studios (Rundgänge in Germany) as they usually would. These occasions in which current students and soon to be graduates can showcase their work to the public and often also gallerists and other art world professionals are extremely important to the further development of their careers after art school.
That is why we have decided to dedicate our summer to recent graduates from all over the world.
This week with Yuri Yuan, chosen by She Performs’ NYC correspondent, Caroline Blockus.
What is a typical day in the studio like for you?
I usually get to my studio around 10 am, make some coffee and read a book. Reading is a calming process for me, filtering the noises of daily life and social media. It is usually a short story or memoir, never an art theory book. As much as I love aesthetics, it is not helpful to have judgments or criticisms in my head before painting. I try not to think about other people’s opinions when I am painting, I just paint whatever the f*** I want. I turn on some music, lately, it has been mostly Cardi B and Doja Cat, and paint till I am hungry. I eat lunch, bother my classmates in the same studio building, then come back to my studio and paint again till 7 or 8pm.
Your experience of art school in 5 #
#ifyouwanttogofastgoalone
#ifyouwanttogofargotogether
#moneywellspent
#gratefulforawesomefaculty
#eliteschooldoesnotguaranteejobopportunity
Whose work inspires you?
Vermeer, Cezanne, and Hammershoi. I love Vermeer’s use of light and the masterful application of paint. Cezanne for his courage to challenge the traditional notion of illusion and stay true to what he sees. Not a lot of people know about the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi. His work has a sense of solitude that focuses more on the interior than the exterior (unlike Hopper). For contemporary painters, I love Peter Doig and Lois Dodd’s use of thin paints to express a sense of distance and luminosity.
What’s on your mind?
When will my takeout get here?
“You’re a shoe!”, 2018
Oil on Canvas, 8x10in
What’s your dream project,?
I would love to have a show featuring my small works. I make small works regularly in between big works to take a break. They are immediate reflections of what I saw and what I remember, like painted diaries. I have been making them since my Junior year in undergrad. I have accumulated a few hundred of them till now. It would be nice to see all of them together and look back on my life and see how my painting style has progressed. These moments in life are pretty mundane, but I think there is something charming about simply being alive, to see and experience this world.
Yuri is a graduate of Columbia University School of the Arts (MFA).
