Above and beyond paint and ceramics

By Lisa Casinger -- Home Accents Today, 10/1/2005

Transcendental Artist

Yuri Zatarain

As a young child, Yuri Zatarain "always wanted to put a product in a box." This idea came to him as a boy of Russian heritage growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he watched Looney Tunes' Road Runner. Wile E. Coyote always ordered something from Acme and Zatarain wanted to have his own Acme factory that "lovingly produced art."

Zatarain, 33, graduated at the top of his class with a degree in industrial design and has been in the industry for about 14 years, the last four with The Phillips Collection. His own company makes and sells his collections throughout Mexico, but The Phillips Collection is the exclusive agent for his work in the rest of the world.

Trained as a painter, he became involved with a small ceramics workshop when he wanted to design a new collection of sculptural pieces. He describes himself as a hunter of new forms and ideas that will take his art to the next level.

"My design process starts with inspiration, which can come from anywhere," Zatarain said. "From that I create a painting and the whole collection is generated from that painting. The key is converting my concept into paint and from paint into a sculpture of ceramic, iron or on canvas."

He finds inspiration in natural forms and elements and in the cultures of traditional societies. He looks to images throughout his grandmother's house, his own childhood memories, architecture, weaving, music, fashion and design. Zatarain's designs capture a feeling he describes as "ethnic chic," which combines global sensibility with a contemporary look.

His paintings are not sold in the home accents industry, though Zatarain typically brings 200 new designs from those paintings to market. A special collection of signed, limited paintings is shown in galleries all over the world feeding the side of the "artist, rather than art for production and decoration."

Zatarain's work has been exhibited in Berlin, Milan, Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York and more. He's even written a children's book, Casa del Sol (House of the Sun), which was published in Mexico.

What makes Zatarain's designs unique are not only the shapes and finishes but "the world around the pieces" as he describes the atmosphere they create.

"I'm always working toward the feeling of the piece," Zatarain said. "I'm very much into the feel of my work."

Like many artists and designers, the concept he's working on now, waking up your feelings, is his favorite. It's a new direction, one in which he wants to inspire, reinvigorate and wake up the way one feels about things.

Zatarain's sculptures make a statement, no matter how you look at them, and are sold in medium to high-end stores and through better retailers and designers including Crate & Barrel, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Sundance.

The sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci have been a great influence on Zatarain's work. When he was 10 years old, he bought a book of da Vinci's sketches and kept it behind his bed. One day he was thrown out of school for bringing the book, which of course was filled with sketches of bodies.

Coincidentally he's always drawn very thin, sort of faceless figures and it wasn't until he visited a museum that he discovered his style was reminiscent of British abstract sculptor Henry Moore and Swiss surrealist painter and sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

"Transcendence is my biggest challenge," Zatarain said. "I want to be remembered for bringing art to the masses."