- Jun 10

Michael Yurick

Michael Yurick is a mixed media artist and painter who has exhibited extensively in New York City and Connecticut consistently since 1990. Notable exhibitions in New York include inclusion and features at Whitehall Gallery, Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, Memphis Gallery, and Claire Gallery. In 2015 Michael was commissioned to create 35 works of art for the Britannia cruise ship for P&O Cruise Lines. Notable awards include several awards from Manhattan Arts International Magazine and various recognitions in juried exhibitions. Michael’s art remains in collections around the world, most notably with the New York Public Library and The Art Students League of New York.

For the purposes of the article we will be focusing on Michael’s mixed media works. The pieces are abstract collages created from geometrical cut out photograph prints and / or from streaks of paint, corrugated cardboard, museum board, and paper. Consistently, the colors are portrayed in variations of neutral grays, quiet earth tones, and metallic colors, almost resembling goldleaf or silverleaf. The integral veneer of the paintings may vary from minimalistic tendencies to busy, asymmetrical compositions which almost come across as a mix between the geometry of Piet Mondrian with the expressions of Alselm Keiffer. Some of the collaged photographs in these mixed media pieces capture texture with streaks of black light and motion blurs which may be mistaken for drawings until further inspection. Although the internal compositions may be chaotic in terms of where they direct the eye in various directions with the sheer quantity of linearity, the overall composition remains orderly and carefully processed.

Times Square No. 4 (pictured above) remains one of Michael’s most fascinating pieces in the sheer expressive quality of the forms. Without closer inspection, the mixed media work could be mistaken for a charcoal or crayon drawing. In fact, the piece contains reconfigured angles of small portions of black and white photography, presumably of Times Square in New York. Although difficult to observe, the photography appears somewhat to reveal portions of shadows on sidewalks and perhaps aspects of architecture. The mixed media work could be described as an extremity in the portrayal of asymmetry. Unlike Michael’s more minimalistic pieces, Times Square No. 4 remains chaotically composed with streaks of expressive shapes formed together to create a motionful standard and then carefully contained within a matted format against a white background. Times Square No. 4 would be equally as fascinating as a drawing but the fact such summarizing effects emanate from a collage of photographs informs the viewer of an artist with a sophisticated eye for design and a talent for the manipulation of illusion.

Michael Yurick remains a complex artist who can successfully sway between forms of expression or minimalism and still come across as consistent. The variation and nuance within his compositions reveals an artist who takes great care in the sanctity of the surface. We often forget notions of two dimensional art as a means of expressing flat planes and finish, however Michael dutifully reminds the viewer of the structural integrity of breaking and reassembling form. The art serves as a reconstruction which contains an interpretation of either geometric aesthetics or breaking down illusory qualities to serve abstract design principles.