SANTA FE, NM.- New York Artist Mario Yrisarry opened his first solo exhibition at David Richard Gallery. Presenting abstract paintings from 1961 – 1967 that explored non-traditional methods of painting on canvas without brushes. Specifically, this exhibition maps the artist’s transition from applying paint with thick rubber mats as stencils to his razor sharp precision using airbrush to apply paint, both free-hand and with highly tailored stencils.

Yrisarry exhibited regularly in New York City in lower Manhattan with Graham Gallery and O.K. Harris Works of Art as well as at Park Place Gallery as a friend of the artist collective.

Inspired by jazz music, his linear applications of paint with combinations of hard and soft edges within the same composition created lyrical abstractions, while his canvas-filling patterns produced a rhythm and beat. These approaches crossed over into the Pattern and Decoration movement and garnered him coverage in the Criss-Cross Art Communications.

Yrisarry exhibited regularly with Graham Gallery and O.K. Harris Works of Art as well as at the Park Place Gallery in New York. His work was included in many important exhibitions: Painting Without A Brush, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1965; Whitney Biennial, New York, 1970; Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art,1970; Using Walls, Jewish Museum, 1970; Spray, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1971; The Structure of Color, Whitney Museum, NY, 1971; Grids, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, 1972. Yrisarry’s artwork is in many private and public collections, including: Joseph Hirshhorn Collection, Washington, DC; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; Larry Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; among others.

Yrisarry was born in Manila, Philippines and studied at Queens College and Cooper Union in New York. He stopped painting and exhibiting in 1977. David Richard Gallery is now exhibiting and representing Yrisarry and his important artworks.