JANINA MYRONOVA

2021 M c KNIGHT ARTIST RESIDENCY FOR CERAMIC ARTISTS RECIPIENT

Janina Myronova’s art is bold and lively with smooth contours, high-contrast use of color, confident line drawings, and the occasional incorporation of fragments of graphic patterns. Titles such as Perfections in the Imperfections, Underwater World, and Freak Show show an interest in the beauty and strangeness of intimacy and our relationship with our environments.

Many of Myronova’s human figures, whether sculpted or painted onto the surface of ceramics, have open mouths, which arrest the viewer with their wide, prominently-lidded eyes. Their expressions are a bit mysterious, as if they’re keeping their emotions in reserve and aren’t to be had for sentimental purposes. Myronova says they have a “strong impression on their face because I think when their mouth is open, you can think that they’re singing, but they may also be screaming, and this is much stronger.”

Strong design and a very intentional color palette lend a unity across Myronova’s media and series. Myronova shares that “symmetry is important in my culture in Ukraine. We use it a lot in our patterns. Also, I definitely need to have something colorful [in my studio or home] to feel good and also in my sculptures. When I work on the decoration, I want to use those bright colors because I actually am thinking of joy. A combination of red and green, or orange and blue are in contrast to each other. I like that contrasting combination. In Eastern Europe, we have very bright colors and similar combinations.”

Some of Myronova’s groups of human figures evoke families. Some figures look older and others, with their bigger eyes and smaller bodies, seem childlike although they’re abstracted and stylized. This leaves room for ample interpretation—even dreaming—of what the relationships between them may be. Some sculptures are two heads conjoined; a head with two faces; or a standing figure with three heads, three legs, and one torso. While the work invites us to look, the solidity of the bodies and their forthright postures disincline viewers from pity or voyeurism.

Myronova has been thinking about bodies and radical differences. She says, “I had serious work about people with disabilities. The people may have three legs and other different combinations of the body. But still, the content was also about joy. There are problems, but we can try to talk about these things. A lot of my work is about families also because my family’s very important.” Myronova has dedicated fourteen recent sculptures to Ukraine: “The worst situation is since last year, since February 24, and my family— I’m worried for them.”

Whether in design work or sculpture, Myronova’s people are unafraid to receive the gaze of the viewer. There’s a kind of joy, even defiance, in these depictions of life lived head-on and aloud. The outlined or red circles on their cheeks convey a robustness, a liveliness, and a strong readiness to laugh, scream, or sing.