Detail:
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About the Artist
Yurik Riegel was born in the small coastal town of Half Moon Bay,
California. He received his first formal art training at the local
high school. Though art was his first love, he also spent a great deal
of his time away from class doing physical exercise. It was here in
the vigorous physical training of running in the school’s Track and
Cross Country teams and practicing the martial art of Hapkido, that
the seeds of personal evolution first took root in his soul.
Yurik attended San Jose State University where he received a degree in
Illustration. At the age of 22, after experiencing a panic attack for
the first time, he began to explore the depths of what motivates
people to do what they do, why they suffer and the relation of
psychology to art. Upon graduation, he traveled across the U.S. in
search of classical figurative training at the Arts Students League of
New York City, under the instruction of Peter Cox, Greg Kreutz, and
Michael Burban.
In 2001, Now back in San Francisco, he was hired by his childhood
inspiration, the Lucas companies. At this time, in the wake of 911,
that despite his achievement, he began to be disillusioned with his
job, art, and circumstances; and wondered if there was something more
to material existance. It was then that Yurik was introduced by a
friend to the world of course work and meditation. He dove in and
never looked back.
Yurik’s imagery speaks of the teachings of the Buddha,Werner Erhard,
David Deada, Tony Robbins, Ekhart Tolle and many others. It also
speaks to the growing trend in the world of urban tribalism,
spirituality, and global connection. His oil paintings are an
up-to-the minute reflection of modern man’s struggle to know himself
in an Age of Information and Globalization.
Yurik still lives in the San Francisco Bay Area near his favorite
city, paints, works as a personal coach, studies transformation, and
races competitively on a local running team.
