Capgras delusion

I've made a bunch of images theses last couple of months, not a lot of them I'm satisfied with though. This is one of the things I feel is more or less adequate. The piece is an illustration to a disorder named Capgras Delusion where a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or other close family member has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor.

Here are some fun preliminary experiments I've had with rorschach designs

Gulliver in Icelandic

This is an illustration to a short story titled Gulliver in Icelandic by Etgar Keret

Sketchbook

More sketchbook mumbling...

dripping spilling horizon off, mess the light growing not so much landing not so soft parasite not large or confined, the terror spilling again coffee stains and dirty light

Wrath

This is a piece on one of the deadly sins, which I started last month. I have gone back into it and reworked/finalized it in the last few days. Here it is

Studies

While I'm finishing other things here are some studies I made in a class with Peter Fiore. His show is coming up, check it out !

Moe's Cafe

This is a commission I did for the SVA cafeteria called Moe's Cafe. The project was pretty challenging for me since I usually don't deal with type and fonts and such. After struggling for some time due to my lack of knowledge in typography I asked a fellow SVA student who just graduated from the graphic design department for help. Liz Chan gave me some very insightful and constructive advice, after which the piece moved forward, and I can say that I'm pretty happy with how my attempt at a more graphic design oriented project turned out.

Medusa

This piece is a portrait of Sasha Grey, as a contemporary Medusa Shield. While on one hand it is a nod to Caravaggio's painting, on the other it is a commentary on the porn industry, specifically in the United States.

In my opinion its numbers (Every 39 minutes - a new pornographic video is being created in the United States; A total of 4.2 million websites contain pornography; Every second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography; The total current income of the country's adult entertainment is often rated at $10–13 billion) and effects are rather disturbing. The fact there are legitimate awards for giving head definitely says something about the public mindset.

new sketchbook

So I've started a new sketchbook recently. Its a mixed bag of drawings from life, imagination, and experiments.

Afterlife

This is an illustration for a story from a book called Sum by David Eagleman. The outcome is in a way scattered, but I am moving in an intentional direction, which includes combining several images in a graphic composition, depth juxtaposed with flatness, and having a variety of surface treatments. This one can be called a useful failure...

Svetlana

Another painting that I started during the summer, and finished up now. It probably isn't a portrait...

Dealing with illusionism and flatness, in a dynamic, rhythmic composition.

Process

My summer hasn't been very productive in terms of artwork output, but I've had a lot of fun and am getting back into my art-making mode now. One of the things I did do was a painting of my mother, which is at this point about 90% finished. I though it would be interesting to put together a collage made up of photos of the painting in its making.

Photo of me by Peter Fiore:

Entertwine (part 1)

I arranged a fun collaborative project with several artists a few weeks ago. The primary output was this 40x60 mixed media drawing executed through automatism. The participants were:Yevgeniya Domashova, Yuri Fialko, Samuel Krichmar, and others.

The second stage of the project is the music video which is in the works at this time. The video exhibits the process as well as some feedback from the artists involved.

Titanomachy

This is the series I made for the Thesis project in my 3rd year at SVA. I got the paintings back after they were in two group shows, both in SVA galleries, and finally took some decent photos.

Titanomachy is a triptych made up of three separate 64 x 96 oil paintings.

“In his large oil paintings, Yuri Leonov uses traditional figure painting to comment on our technological age. Dominating his canvases are life size figures representing Greek gods manipulating financial and media empires run amok.”

-from SOCIAL press release

Zeus