We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yuri Uzcategui a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Yuri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on is definitely “The Trilogy of Integration.” Not just because of the artistic outcome, but because of the emotional and personal journey behind it.

The trilogy emerged after several years of working on different pieces that, without me realizing it at first, were deeply interconnected. In the middle of that creative process, I experienced a kind of inner awakening that led me to create this three-part series. I worked on it over the course of four months and completed it in July 2023, in Brooklyn, New York.

What makes this project so meaningful to me is that it was born out of a very intimate experience. When I was 27, during a psychotherapy session, my therapist told me something that stuck with me: “Yuri, you need to work on integrating three things: what you think, what you feel, and what you do.” That idea stayed with me for years. And eleven years later, after exploring multidisciplinary art and going through many personal experiences, I felt ready to transform that concept into art. That’s how The Trilogy of Integration was born—as a search for balance between mind, emotion, and action.

This project is also connected to my broader third series, called “My Creative Hands,” which I began in 2023. In it, I focused on observing my own hands as symbols of creation and presence. I used to draw my hands almost daily during my train commutes to work. From that practice, two key pieces emerged: “Finding the Way” and “The Expanding Black Hole,” both designed with geometric elements and shaped through therapeutic introspection. The mental images that came through those drawings reflected my past, my present, and my projections for the future.

Together, The Trilogy of Integration became a way for me to translate years of internal work into art—to integrate what I think, feel, and do, in order to live more authentically and in harmony with the world around me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Yuri Uzcátegui, and I’m an emerging multidisciplinary artist since 2020. Ever since I was a child, I’ve been deeply passionate about music, dance, and art. I learned to embroider when I was 8 years old, and that practice would immerse me in a creative world—just like dance and the rhythms that always accompanied me.
Due to personal, family, and national circumstances, I reconnected with art at the age of 35. I started by rediscovering crochet, and then gradually explored other forms of expression: photography, painting, illustration, printmaking, and flamenco dance. From there, I began to imagine how I could weave all of these disciplines together—how to paint what I photograph, how to tell stories through characters and spaces—and that led me to develop four ongoing projects that are part of a story still being written.
Today, I’m actively learning new techniques to further my artistic projects and preparing to present them in an integrated exhibition. My goal is always to connect with others through art, offering messages of growth, support, healing, or guidance.
In these past five years, I’ve had the opportunity to exhibit my work alongside established artists, to contribute to the organization of art shows, and to consistently share my creative projects—always fueled by a vision that comes from within, as a way of transforming emotion into form.
Even though my artistic path is still emerging, I’ve had meaningful experiences. I’ve been part of the organizing team at the Venezuela Art Fair in New York (2021–2023), where I worked as a public relations coordinator, co-producer, and event host. I’ve also shown my work in Hamptons (2022) and during Miami Art Week (2024), as well as in smaller, more intimate spaces that have been equally transformative and powerful.
My creative identity is called “Y Potassium – What is your why?”—a personal brand and an open-ended question that invites reflection. Through it, I’ve developed the following projects:
1. “Life, Places & Click” – A photographic documentary born in 2020, created for my first exhibition at the Venezuela Art Fair. It was a journey of personal reconnection during the pandemic, capturing moments between New York, Ohio, and Miami.
2. “147 Days and One Night” – A deep inner exploration of the seven chakras, carried out in 21-day cycles of meditation, research, and self-awareness.
3. “My Creative Hands” – After an external search, this project represents an internal journey expressed through the hands—what we make with them reflects who we are inside.
4. “A Thousand Flowers” – A project inspired by music and flamenco dance, capturing the energy of movement, passion, memory, rhythm, listening, and interpretation.
Each of these projects is a chapter in a story that is still unfolding—a personal narrative that seeks to connect with the outside world through honesty, presence, and creativity.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

One book that has stayed with me and deeply influenced how I understand creative cycles and personal transformation is The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell.

This book helped me prepare for one of the most significant transitions of my life: leaving my home country, Venezuela, and starting a new path. Campbell’s work explores the idea of the “hero’s journey,” the universal structure of growth and transformation that includes a beginning, a development stage, and an end—so that a new cycle or goal can emerge.

Reading it gave me a broader understanding of life’s processes: how dreams evolve, how challenges and allies appear along the way, and how every stage has a purpose. I often recommend this book because it helped me recognize my own journey not just as an artist, but as a person navigating change, vision, and resilience.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I believe that society can best support artists and a thriving creative ecosystem by recognizing that art is fundamental to our identity and well-being—not just an extra or luxury. This means providing accessible platforms where artists, especially emerging ones, can showcase their work, along with fair funding and mentorship opportunities.
Education is also key: fostering creativity from a young age helps build a society that values and understands the creative process. Beyond financial support, artists need emotional encouragement and community recognition to sustain their work.
When society invests in its artists, it invests in the cultural soul and future of its communities.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @YPotasiumm
• Linkedin: Yuri Uzcategui

Image Credits

Photography Credits: Daniel Galue
Art photo: Yuri Uzcategui