Adriana Jaroslavsky at her 2021 residency in Cornwall, UK, at @porthmeorstudios at their Anchor Studios in Newlyn. Picture by: @alban_roinard. Courtesy of the artist.
Meet Adriana Jaros, short for Jaroslavsky, a multidisciplinary artist from Caracas, Venezuela, now based in London. She studied Visual Communications in Caracas and, upon moving to London in 2011, studied Textiles at UAL, Chelsea. Her artwork has been exhibited at Palermo Uno Milan Gallery, London Mural Festival, London Design Festival, and 19 Karen Contemporary Art Space, Australia. Magazines such as ELLE Decoration and House & Garden have also featured her work.
Adriana's art transcends authenticity and a universal human connection in a practice that spans painting, sculpture, large-scale installations, ceramics, and murals. Please read my interview with her below to learn more about her and her work.
Please tell us about your background and what inspired you to become an artist.
My full name is Adriana Jaroslavsky. I am a third-generation Venezuelan, the granddaughter of Romanian Jewish immigrants. My father is Brazilian, and I now live in London. I am a full mix and combination of so many different tensions and influences. Forced by my strong sensitivity and extreme inspiration from our shared human experiences, I followed a strong instinct or obsession and found myself here, being an artist. I try to be honest with the world around me and myself every step of the way in my artistic practice. I strongly believe we are all artists to begin with, whatever an artist is.
Image courtesy of the artist.
What does your work aim to say? What are the major themes you pursue in your artwork?
There is definitely a strong thread around identity, repair, gender, and raw honesty. I do not think this has to necessarily translate into what the work aims to say. I will leave that to whoever encounters the work. Whatever I aim to say is not relevant. However, I hope my art can be a bridge for others to feel their own lives, memories, and experiences right back in their own skin.
Image courtesy of the artist.
What does a day in your life look like?
Every day is very different, but it does start in a mildly ritualistic way. Essentially, I start my day doing my best to get my mind into an optimum state of well-being to properly get the little girl inside me to come out to play during the day, allowing me to truly access my most honest work, thoughts, and ideas.
Image courtesy of the artist.
How has your heritage shaped you as an artist?
Well, probably in more ways than I can count. I believe we are the melting pot of all of our experiences, memories, traumas, and inherited traumas. We inherit so many aspects in our genes but also behavior, and we do not even notice until we start peeling away the layers to try to find the core of ourselves again, only to discover it doe not matter, really. Whatever we are is just pure love in many shapes and forms, and all the other labels serve to live better within human society.
Image courtesy of the artist.
What advantages or setbacks have you encountered as an artist living in London?
I always thought the setbacks came from the outside stimuli; the different rough weather, the lack of language to express myself fully, the weird accent, the different cultural conventions. . . on and on and on. But the more I deal with my inner demons, the more I realize that most setbacks are in our mind. With a healthier mindset, we can be calmer and more at peace here in London and anywhere we find ourselves.
I am currently not trying to reach fame and social "success." Instead, I am trying to find purpose in the mundane of everyday life, in the importance of my practice, and in my own survival, with all its advantages and setbacks. I am trying to keep a positive mind.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Who are the artists that inspire you?
This answer changes depending on the time I am going through in my own life. Right now, I am working and researching so much around mending and textiles. I have always been so drawn towards the sculptural, out of the traditional standards, dark and raw - again, honest work!
Here are a few names that truly light me up at the moment: Eduardo Chillida, Louise Bourgeois, Simon Callery, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Cecilia Vicuña, Angela De La Cruz, Solange Pessoa. I am also deeply inspired and passionate about performance and the work of Pina Bausch.
I find that the most inspiring artists and humans are those who carry their art into a way of living as opposed to just a practice, it is holistic, and this is truly inspiring for me. An architect that designs chairs, ceramics, floor tiles, and theatre costumes as a whole language within his/her own world and does not live within a label is what I love and am inspired about.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Finally, would you like to share any exciting plans for the future?
I am really excited to be going on a month-long residency in January 2023 at @joya_air in the south of Spain, where I will hopefully be taking my practice into another discovery journey.
I really hope to show all of my new work and development, as well as the new performance elements of my practice, in an exhibition next year, in 2023. I would love to share it all with others and create a sacred ritualistic space that can live forever in people's memories.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Thank you so much for reading this interview. I hope you enjoyed it. You can follow Adriana on Instragram here to be up-to-date with her work.
If you are interested in acquiring art from Adriana, please contact me here.
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