Y URI FIGUEROA C ON N E C T I NG T H E D O T S T O DA L I
by Cat Acree Photography by Joshua Black-Wilkins
I
dare you to try to pin Yuri Figueroa down, to relate one image to him, to choose one medium of visual art to sum him up. To do so is like having a serious conversation over the phone, when expressions and subtle nuances can get lost in the wavelength. The title of his most recent show, Introductory Dialogues: The Four Monsters Inside My Head, allows some semblance of a starting point, as he does indeed recognize four individual elements of his personality, and they function as a cycle, like the four seasons of the year. That isn’t to say that these four elements are represented in his work, at least not in such stark terms as Sad Yuri, Angry Yuri, Happy Yuri, etc. But perhaps knowing that Figueroa rotates around an invisible axis will help the viewer discover the story he’s trying to tell through works that range from passionate, emotional, abstract paintings to black-and-white video performances. Twenty-five-year-old Figueroa is a self-taught visual artist, born in the city of Colima in Mexico. His heavy, dark hair is pulled to a low ponytail, his jet-black mustache waxed stiff and slender like Salvador Dalí’s. Considering the fact that English is his second language, it should come as no surprise that language plays perhaps the most important role in his work.
Three Studies of a Portrait, 2013, Oil on canvas, 16” x 12”
Cosmogony of State, 2013, Chinese ink and permanent ink on paper, 14” x 11”