Yuri Gevorgian

(Yuroz) Yuri Gevorgian is a US-based, Armenian-born artist, renowned for his figurative work, which encompasses people from all walks of life, inspired by his own life experiences. 

Born in Soviet Armenia, Yuroz, as he is known, entered the Akop Kodjoyan School of Art in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, aged just 10, before furthering his studies at the Yerevan University of Art and Architecture. 

While his talent boded well for a promising career as an architect and artist, his political beliefs brought him into conflict with the Soviet regime in Armenia, with the result that he became a refugee. He faced a seven-year wait before he was able to enter the US, despite marrying a woman who was already permitted to live there. These and other experiences have proved key in the themes he explores in his work, which are the challenges, loves and lives of everyday people near and far. Yuroz has an uncanny ability to capture the emotions, moods, and feelings of his subjects, whether the homeless people he befriended and shared an affinity with when he first moved to LA – acknowledged in his Hollywood Boulevard series - an athlete in action or lovers embracing, recreating the human form with exquisite curves and lines.

Before finding success, Yuroz relied on discarded cardboard and pens to create his art – humble beginnings he never forgot. However, over time his talent shone through and rightly earned him high-level recognition. Highlights of his career to date have included being selected by the United Nations in the year 2000 to create the design for the 50th-anniversary stamp honoring refugees around the globe. A mural of the design was unveiled in New York City in the same year and the work now forms part of the permanent collection at the General Assembly Building in Geneva, Switzerland. Today, his in-demand pieces are offered through his company, Stygian Publishing Inc., which also produces limited-edition serigraphs of his oils, pastels, and line drawings.