2019 Emerging Artist: Janina Myronova Ceramics Monthly

Appears in the May 2019 issue of Ceramics Monthly.

Janina Myronova, Wroclaw, Poland

With the physical attributes of super-hero figurines and the sharply defined features of a graphic novel, Janina Myronova’s handbuilt and mold-made figures express her interest in human relationships and everyday life situations. The proportions of her figures are askew, and each new persona carries with it a fully developed biography illustrated across its body and clothing. Myronova’s strength shines in her black-and-white drawings of human physicalities applied around the entire figural form. This style of decoration allows her to distort the perspective of the body, lending it the quality of Naïve or Outsider art. Myronova arranges the drawings in such a way, occasionally in layers or stark croppings, that graphical themes emerge—parent and child, anger and sadness, fear and dreams—often with subtle nods to humor. Several figures are imbued with bright colorful accents representing boots and body suits, which occasionally show personal depictions of familial relationships. Areas of deep, rich color work to emotionally charge the figures, which could otherwise be seen as stiff or wooden due to the minimal nature of their construction. Each of Myronova’s formal art elements—line, color, material, size—helps her to shape the viewers’ perception of the object.