Jaroslav Drazil (b. 1984) is a visual artist whose personal history has profoundly influenced his artistic practice. As the son of a mother who fled the former Czechoslovakia in the 1980s, he spent a significant part of his childhood in transit and in refugee camps. These experiences form a central foundation of his work, in which he explores the human and psychological dimensions of migration, belonging, and the uncertainty of existing between different places and cultures.
In his latest series, Strange Homeland, Drazil explores the concept of home as something far more complex than a geographical location. Home emerges as a fragile and often contradictory state, shaped by longing, memory, and the sense of never quite belonging. His works examine the human condition between arrival and departure, between rootedness and alienation.
Drazil's distinctive visual language combines realistically painted human figures with simplified, graphic backgrounds that at times evoke the aesthetics of woodcuts. A recurring motif is the bus stop seat, which also appears in works presented at NordArt. It serves as a symbol of waiting and transience – a place where people pause without necessarily belonging. His figures appear physically present yet somehow detached from their surroundings, suspended between stability and dissolution.
Through a deeply personal yet universally resonant visual language, Jaroslav Drazil explores themes of identity, memory, migration, and the human search for belonging. His works invite viewers to reflect on what it truly means to call a place home – and whether home is a destination or something we continue to search for throughout our lives.
Exhibitions:
2025
NordArt, INERTIA
2024
NordArt, Strange Homeland
2022
Factum Est, Martin von Wagner Museum, Würzburg
2019
Von hier bis jetzt, Spitäle (VKU), Würzburg
2016
Prozesse, Posthallen Würzburg
2014
Zwischenmenschen, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg
Public Commissions / Art in Architecture
2025
Portrait of the former Lord Mayor for the ancestral gallery, Würzburg City Hal
Realization of Campus Kaleidoskop, University of Würzburg
2024
Winner, Art in Architecture Competition, State Building Authority of Bavaria
2023
Reinterpretation of the Allegories of the Continents, Motel One Würzburg
Since 2021 - Collection display, Dommuseum Würzburg
