Sława Harasymowicz references imagery from archive photography, family memorabilia and her own photos, which she translates into drawings, silk screen prints or paintings, ‘picture sets’ imbued with new narrative associations, posing questions on identity and meaning. Her working process reflects her interest in the ambiguity of the reproduced and transmitted.
‘Harasymowicz’s images share the directness of Andy Warhol’s screen printed paintings, only the subject matter is very different. Whereas Warhol made visual statements on the nihilistic nature of contemporary materialism, Harasymowicz speculates on the force of history and its hold over our memory and imagination. Her fragmented picture narratives as well as her paintings, prints and installations haunt us, in the manner of discarded family photographic albums...' (Andrzej Klimowski, Royal College of Art, 2011)
Sława Harasymowicz was born in Krakow, Poland, and studied philology and translation at the Jagiellonian University. She graduated with an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2006, followed by Experimental Printmaking at London College of Printing. A double winner at the V&A Illustration Awards and a jury member at the Awards in 2010, she is a recipient of the Arts Foundation Fellowship, which she received from Sir Peter Blake in 2008.
She is currently completing Wolf Man, a graphic novel based on the case of Sergei Pankejeff, one of Sigmund Freud's most famous patients, to be published March 2012 by Self Made Hero in collaboration with Freud Estate. An exhibition of related work is to take place later in 2012.