Yuri Masnyj’s “Stairway” (2002) is a brilliant example of the artist’s conceptual explorations of Modernism in carefully constructed drawings of interior spaces. A particularly strong example, “Stairway” replicates an anonymous interior with mysteriously obscured stairway leading out of the visual “space” of the interior. In the drawing, various artworks and interior design objects are included, only to be “erased” with white paint. Self-reflexively referring to the act of composing, Masnyj’s interior is a formally conceptual meditaion on the history of art and design.

New York-based Yuri Masnyj was born in Washington D.C. He received a BFA from the Cooper Union, and his work has been included in important exhibitions such as “International Paper” at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; the 2005 Greater New York show at PS 1; and the Whitney Biennial of 2006. Masnyj is represented by Metro Pictures Gallery in New York.