YORK artist Andres Jaroslavsky has made as big an impact as his paintings in his year on the inaugural Creative Practice MA art course at Leeds College of Art.

Not only has he graduated with a distinction, but only two weeks after completing his MA, one of his paintings, Madres, won the Yorkshire Art Journal cover competition and will now adorn the front of the latest issue.

There has been even more good news for Argentinian Andres, who runs The Corner Gallery in Scarcroft Road, York, He has been chosen as one of only four artists from the MA course to exhibit in the Leeds College of Art's inaugural Masters exhibition, MA Creative Practice, in the Gallery at Munro House, Leeds from October 9 to November 8. Joining him will be Emma Dexter, Patrick Kirk-Smith and Janey Walklin, and if you are needing directions to Munro House, it is next to the BBC at Quarry Hill, right opposite Leeds bus station.

Andres will be showing four paintings from his MA on the subject of memory and conflict, including Madres. "Madres means 'mothers' and the figures represent the mothers of the disappeared at the time of the Argentinian dictatorship under General Videla from 1976 to 1983," he says.

"My whole Masters show represented that dictatorship. I was two years old when it started and for many years I worked in human rights in the north of Argentina and then worked for Amnesty International in the UK. In fact I had a book published in London called The Future Of Memory, about the dictatorship in Argentina.

The further works on show at Munro House will be 1976, named after the year of the coup d'etat; The Silence; and General Bussi. "He was one of the most brutal generals in the dictatorship and he represented the cowardice of the people who carried out the dictatorship," says Andres. I don't think paintings like this can change things politically but it's good to provoke discussions about the past or address how people refuse to talk about that past, and I have two or three more paintings in the series that will do that.

"Sadly we've moved into a culture where we don't like to discuss difficult or painful political issues. Where is the political art? Where is the political literature?Where are the political songs, the protest songs that address what's going on in the world? Now people seem to switch off from political debate, rather than engage in discussions, so that's why, against that background, my art is addressing conflict and memory."

Meanwhile, Andres continues to run painting and drawing lessons on Thursdays and Saturdays at The Corner House Gallery and is also teaching life drawing on Tuesdays at Heworth and Wednesdays at Fulford. "All the students – life drawing, painting and drawing – are planing a big exhibition for April next year, and more information about the lessons can be found at cornergallery.net," he says.

Finally, this week Andres is launching his 2015 calendar of "York's Most Iconic Buildings" in conqueror paper, designed like a sketch book. The initial print run is on only 200, so hurry to the gallery.

 

• ANDRES Jaroslavsky's latest work features in a documentary made by the students of York St John University, Film & Television Department. You can view it at
leeds-art.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-programme/ma-creative-practice/current-students/current-students/andres-jaroslavsky/