Education 

1998 - 1999 Studio Art, San Diego State University.
1994 - 1996 BA Art History, American University in Paris
1991 - 1994 Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA.


Solo Exhibitions 

2020 Darklight, Duck Creek Art Center, Springs NY
2020 RESINance, The Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
2017 Darius Yektai, KEYES ART PROJECTS, NY
2015 Touch Thoughts, Tripoli Gallery, Southampton NY
2014 Two Weeks in Umbria, Tripoli Gallery, Southampton, NY
2013 On Country Ground, Tripoli Gallery, Southampton, NY
2009 All I Know About Love at Thirty-Six, Part 2, LTMH Gallery, NY All I Know About Love at Thirty-Six, Part 1, Salomon Contemporary, NY
2006 Salomon Contemporary, Easthampton, NY.
2003 Darius Yektai: Survey
2000 - 2003, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY.
White Grass, Sara Nightingale Gallery, Water Mill, NY


Selected Group Exhibitions

 

2022 Rarity Gallery Group Show , Greece
2020 Drive-By-Art, New York organized by Warren Neidich
2017 Yektai, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
2015 Selfies and Portraits of the East End, Guild Hall Museum, Easthampton, NY
2012 Thanksgiving Collective 2012, Tripoli Gallery, Southampton, NY
Watercolors, Phillips de Pury & Co., New York, NY, October 1 – 19, 2012
2010 Thanksgiving Collective 2010, Tripoli Gallery, Southampton, NY
Tehran-New York, LTMH Gallery, NY
2009 Recent Acquisitions, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY
Before We Let Go…, Tripoli Gallery, Southampton, NY
In Stitches, LTMH Gallery, NY, curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody Iran Inside Out, The Chelsea Art Museum, NY, curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath Selseleh Zelzeleh: movers and shakers in contemporary Iranian art, LTMH Gallery, NY, curated by Leila Heller and Dr. Layla S. Diba
2008 Conference of the Birds, Berardi and Sagharchi Projects with LTMH gallery, London, England The Annual Hamptons Show, theFIREPLACEproject, curated by Klaus Kertess
2007 Sex and Sensuality, Salomon Contemporary, Easthampton, NY
2006 M*A*S*H @ art basel Miami, curated by David Hunt 2005 Hampton’s Artists: Then and Now, Remy Toledo Gallery, NY
Large Paintings, Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton
2004 Fresh Paint, Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton
2002 Spring Exhibition 2002, Clark Fine Art, Southampton 2001 Re-emerging Artists, Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton
1997 All-California Juried Exhibition: San Diego Museum of Art


Awards

Guild Hall Museum’s annual members show
2010 Best Representational Work - Benjamin Genocchio 2008 Best Sculpture - Linda Jablonsky
2002 Best in Show - Amei Wallach

 

My work is an exploration of “What is painting”:

a formal pursuit. 

 

"I push painting towards sculpture and sculpture towards painting.  Traditional hierarchies in the stages of “how to paint” are subverted, inverted, and exploded.  To the effect that thick “varnishes” of resin become intermediary layers instead of thin top coats.  There is an over-under layering to the paintings that quietly asks the viewer to walk around the piece in order to understand it.  The same way that sculpture asks the viewer to walk around it.   Any painted marks on the surface of the resin interrupt the reflection of light, and the paintings sparkle in response to it.  These are highly kinetic paintings and the viewer’s movement sets it off.

 

The most recent discovery was the thought that paint is -as a material- made out of powdered pigment suspended in a binder (oil or acrylic).  The pastel beginnings in some of the resin works are powdery drawings made with the canvas on the floor.  The tooth of the canvas turns the pastels back into what they are— pure powdered pigments.  The poured over resin then acts as the “binder” and mixes with this powdery drawing.  It is in that moment (when the powdered pigment is mixed in and saturated with the resin binder) that the drawings become paintings— powdered pigment suspended in a binder.  I especially like that when the resin lifts up the loose powder the stark drawing marks become more visible.  It’s as if the painting of the work reveals the drawing of the work.  Something that is usually lost in the hierarchy of traditional painting, where preparatory drawings of the subject are completely covered and lost in the act of the all-over painting.

 

There are many thoughts built into these works and they will satisfy, and interest you, and reveal their secrets slowly.  

They meet you where you are.  They are as much about you, the viewer, and the space that you are standing in (the reflections in the high gloss surface) as they are about themselves and the interior/superficial/conceptual space of their creation.  

I hope you enjoy them."