Born on December 24, 1959 in Taganrog.
Graduated from Taganrog Children's Art School.
From 1977 to 1979 he studied at the art department of the Rostov State Pedagogical Institute, which was forced to leave for political reasons. From 1979 to 1982 he studied at the Rostov Art School.
From 1982 to 1995, taught painting in the children's art school in Taganrog. While working at the art school, developed in collaboration with Vladimir Baranovsky original method of teaching composition, based on the principles of Weimar Bauhaus school.
Since 1987 he has been a member of the Art or Death Fellowship. In 1990-1991, he was an art director at the Taganrog Drama Theater.
His first personal exhibition "Bogudon School" was held in 1993 in the Moscow gallery "Velt" with the assistance of Avdey Ter-Oganyan who called himself Shabelnikov's pupil.
In 1995, he moved to Moscow. He lived and worked in "Baumanskaya, 13" squat until it was closed in 1998. Since 2006 he has given lectures and workshops for students of the Free Studio School of Contemporary Art.
In 2007 he was short-listed for the Kandinsky Prize in the category Artist of the Year. In 2008, the work of Yuri Shabelnikov "Border" (2006, x/m, 210x175) from the series "Requiem for Will" was sold at auction "Sotheby's".
Worked with galleries ArtStrelka Projects (Moscow, 2004-2009), M. Gelman (Moscow), "Orel Art" (Paris).
In 2012 he created, together with Yuri Horovsky, a monument for the grave of actress Lyudmila Gurchenko.
In September 2012, Shabelnikov's project "Biblical Mail" was included in the long list of the Kandinsky Prize in the category "Project of the Year".
He lives and works in Moscow.