Related Events:

Exhibition Reception & Artist Talk: Friday, May 2nd, 2025, 5:30pm | Free and Open to the public
Artist Workshop: Saturday, May 3rd | more details to follow

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art presents Folktales and Fanfare: Sculpture and Drawings by Janina Myronova. You are invited to a special exhibition that highlights a new selection of work by the bright and talented Ukrainian ceramic artist Janina Myronova. Visitors will be welcomed by her iconic figures playfully situated within a garden of amusement. The colorful bright cheeked faces and bold bodies made up of undulating shapes with exaggerated expressions and comical compositions, will attract your curiosity and pull you towards visual narratives drawn on paper and painted on the surface of her sculptures.  Myronova wants you to, “enter a space where every sculpture is a storyteller, echoing the rich tapestry of folklore. They are like frozen moments of a big performance; stories about personal exploration of the world seen through a cheerful and positive filter.” Join us and take time to experience this joyful exhibition that tells us stories about home, place, friendship, hope, and new beginnings.

Born and raised in the Ukraine but now living in Poland, Myronova has been enjoying the artist-in-residence life since completing her PhD studies in 2019. Janina Myronova came to United States in 2022 as a McKnight Fellow Resident Artist at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, MN and continued as a Long-Term Resident Artist at Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT. Currently she is at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, PA where she started her residency is September of 2024.

Janina Myronova received her MFA at the Lviv National Academy of Fine Arts, Lviv, Ukraine in 2012, an MFA at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Wroclaw, Poland in 2013, and her PhD at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Wroclaw, Poland in 2019. She is continually developing her work and practice, she has attended numerous residencies including opportunities at New Taipei Yingge Ceramics Museum, New Taipei, Taiwan; Clayarch Gimhae Museum, Gimhae-si, South Korea; Lefebvre and Fils, Paris, France; International Ceramic Research Center Guldagergaard, Skalskor, Denmark; International Ceramics Studio, Kecskemet, Hungary; Majolika Karlsruhe, Germany.

Her works are in the collection of Crocker Art Museum, California; Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan; National Museum in Wroclaw, Poland; National Museum in Krakow, Poland; Museu Ceràmica l Alcora, Spain; Riga Porcelain Museum, Latvia; Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana; and Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, Montana.

 This exhibition is curated by Nicole Maria Evans, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. Exhibitions at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art are supported in part by the Montana Arts Council, a state agency funded by the State of Montana, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We are funded in part by coal severance taxes paid based upon coal mined in Montana and deposited in Montana's cultural and aesthetic projects trust fund. Additional funding is provided by museum members and the citizens of Cascade County, Davidson Family Foundation, D.A. Davidson, Montana Credit Union, Hotel Arvon, First Interstate Bank, and Gordon McConnell. A special thank you to our wonderful and generous anonymous donor; Kelly’s Signs & Design; The Hiltner Family; and Wayne Boeck.