About my work

Catharsis, suppression, and the physical and visual properties of paint inspire me to paint.

Paint is jabbed, thrown, squeezed from tubes or cake-decorating bags, squirted, smeared and scraped. Layers of paint run into, over and under each other in a literal and metaphorical battle of drives, forces, emotions and energies confined to the rectangular base like those taking place in and between our minds and bodies.

My paintings are tinged with aggression, crudeness, and directness that shines a light on the “darker” side of life and human nature. The paintings are not windows into an illusory world. They ain't always cordial, and they’ll jump out into your face before being passed by unnoticed. They exist. Defiantly, here and now, changing as the paint ages, and demanding the viewer’s presence to explore the paintings from different perspectives. They overwhelm and put the viewer in awe, often with a dose of fright, sometimes alluding to memento mori.

Bio

Boris Ostrerov earned a BFA in Painting from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and an MFA in Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. Ostrerov has exhibited at several galleries including FLXST Contemporary, Bert Green Fine Art, Patient Info, AREA Gallery, Slow Gallery, and Paris London Hong Kong (PLHK). He has been featured in New American Paintings #119 and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Ostrerov’s painting was included in the New American Paintings show at the Elmhurst Art Museum in 2016. Ostrerov currently lives in Chicago.

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