Work on Monday: "Untitled Wave" by Darius Yektai

Today’s Work on Monday looks at a stunning piece from Sagaponack painter Darius Yektai’s Untitled Wave series. This large-scale painting gives a nod to the East End’s legendary Abstract Expressionists while capturing beautifully the movement and strength of the sea

Work on Monday is a weekly look at one piece of art related to the East End, usually by a Hamptons or North Fork artist, living or dead, created in any kind of media. Join the conversation by posting your thoughts in the comments below and email suggestions for a future Work on Monday here.

Untitled Wave
Darius Yektai (Southampton, born 1973)
Oil, spray enamel, paint tubes and brushes on canvas
72 x 96 inches, 2012

Among the several large untitled paintings in the series, this particular work does an excellent job conjuring the weight and movement of its subject. Yektai employs various forms of paint to create the dark and violent ocean, which feels specifically born of winter weather.

Likely the first things on hand in his studio, the paint tubes and brushes appear like random debris caught in the maelstrom of Yektai’s crashing wave. With that, the artist drips and splatters paint to literally embody the water he recreates.

Together, these techniques and the painting’s monumental size make for a truly breathtaking and effective composition. Yektai has created bold, inspired work with a subject that could easily have fallen into typical, clichéd local fare. This artist is a “painter’s painter,” who looks to his forebears while making new, substantial work with his own, contemporary vision.

Darius Yektai shows at Peter Marcel Gallery in Bridgehampton and Tripoli Gallery in Southampton. To learn more and see other waves in his untitled series, visit dyektai.com.