E: gallery@velorose.com


Alzbeta Jaresova, Fixed Position: Studies for a Hypothetical Environment
Velorose, 8 June 2018 - 20 July 2018


The body inhabits the most fundamental space in our reality; the mind is a direct consequence of being embodied. Our language has adapted the word ‘body’ well beyond the physical – to the psychological, emotional, and the creative; we speak of body image, body language, a nobody, the body politic, celestial bodies, a body of work. We rely on the concrete to convey the abstract; feeling down, being backward, giving the cold shoulder – or a helping hand. Our bodies are invested with power, and yet other bodies, alive or dead, sentient or not, by brute force or seductive coercion, have enormous power and influence on our physical and mental selves

Alzbeta Jaresova’s practice examines how this can be; how the body in space transcends the purely physical, and how it feels to see as physical the spaces our bodies occupy: “I explore a figure-space relationship where the protagonists are placed into a contrivance, which exerts, or simply suggests, a power over their gesture”. Jaresova’s interest in the subject matter stems from her upbringing in Prague, where its mélange of Gothic, early Modernist, and Soviet era architecture left a powerful impression on her. Whilst her practice has its origin in the autobiographical, her new work reveals an evolving refinement towards the universal. Jaresova has understood that feelings often have a physical manifestation and that our physical states can impact how we feel, no matter where we are from or find ourselves

Jaresova’s analyses and explorations create hypothetical environments where figures or extremities are positioned within geometric structures. This artistic device articulates the invisible, confining scaffolds at work in conformity, self-restraint, and social conditioning. The bodies take on a symbolic role: “they are manipulated like figurines, or toys, and placed into enclosed spaces…rather than trying to express their specific personalities, I am interested in exploring the figures’ gestures and using the positioning of their bodies to present a solemn moment of desolation and constraint”. Hands and feet – our implements for innumerable arts and locomotion respectively – are controlled and directed by artificial apparatuses, locked in position, fixed in stocks

Astonishing technique and style underscore Jaresova’s facility to convey these messages. Her works, delicately rendered in monochrome on paper with graphite, or in intriguing three-dimensional objects, bely the unbearable weight of the concepts they embody. The works are beautiful and beguiling; more organic and with more pathos than purely anatomical drawings, Jaresova marries the expert technical prowess of Dürer and Escher, with the eerie quotidian of Vermeer’s paintings, and a sinister appreciation of the confining nature of the body and the spaces it inhabits

All works are for sale; contact gallery@velorose.com for details





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XVI (Detail) (2015), Graphite on Paper
77cm x 55.5cm (paper size) 30.5cm x 30.5cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XVII (Detail) (2016), Oil on Canvas
77cm x 55.5cm (paper size) 30.5cm x 30.5cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XX (Detail) (2015), Graphite on Paper
76cm x 56cm (paper size) 47.5cm x 14cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXI (Detail) (2015), Graphite on Paper
56cm x 76cm (paper size) 39cm x 47.5cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXIII (Detail) (2016), Graphite on Paper
42cm x 59cm (paper size) 25.2cm x 32cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Spatial Composition II (2016)
Plaster, 24.3cm x 61cm x 41cm





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXIV (Detail) (2016), Graphite on Paper
56cm x 76cm (paper size) 21cm x 27cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Spatial Composition I (2016), Plaster
4.8cm x 40cm x 34cm





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXVI (Detail) (2017), Graphite on Paper
53cm x 72.5cm (paper size) 28cm x 41.5cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXVII (Detail) (2017), Graphite on Paper
53cm x 72.5cm (paper size) 39.4cm x 32cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXVIII (Detail) (2018), Graphite on Paper
54cm x 73.5cm (paper size) 40.5cm x 53cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXIX (Detail) (2018), Graphite on Paper
53cm x 53cm (paper size) 25cm x 25cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXX (Detail) (2018), Graphite on Paper
94.5cm x 83.5cm (paper size) 61cm x 58cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Position XXXI (Detail) (2018), Graphite on Paper
39cm x 55.7cm (paper size) 20.5cm x 27cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Spatial Composition III, Plaster and Acrylic
9.5cm x 95cm x 48cm





Alzbeta Jaresova, Untitled I (Detail) (2016), Graphite on Paper
56cm x 76cm (paper size) 25.3cm x 37.5cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Untitled II (Detail) (2017), Graphite on Paper
39cm x 55.7cm (paper size) 27cm x 46cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Device I (Detail) (2018), Graphite on Paper
42cm x 59cm (paper size) 14.2cm x 18cm (image size)





Alzbeta Jaresova, Device II (Detail) (2018), Graphite on Paper
42cm x 59cm (paper size) 14.2cm x 18cm (image size)


Alzbeta Jaresova was born in 1987 in Prague (then Czechoslovakia, now Czech Republic), and currently lives and works in London, UK. Her work is an exploration into architecture and the built environment as embodiments of political, social and cultural values, as well as the psychological impact and phenomenology of the spaces we all occupy

Jaresova obtained a BFA in Painting and Drawing at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) in 2009 and completed an MA in Fine Art at Camberwell College of Arts (London, UK) in 2012. Following her MA, Jaresova received the inaugural Griffin Art Prize sponsored by Winsor and Newton in 2012, which resulted in her first solo exhibition at the Griffin Gallery in September 2013

Jaresova has been repeatedly selected for exhibitions in the UK, Canada and the USA, including the annual Future Map 12, a showcase of the University of Arts London’s top graduating students, The Future Can Wait (in collaboration with Channel 4 and Saatchi Gallery’s ‘New Sensations’), and Architecture as Metaphor also at the Griffin Gallery (alongside artists Phyllida Barlow, Richard Deacon and Rachel Whiteread). As well as being shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2014, Jaresova was most recently named winner of Denton’s Art Prize Autumn / Winter 2017, for which the chair of the judges was David Roberts