Join us at the Calvert 22 Bookshop to meet renown graphic artist and activist Victoria Lomasko at the launch of her book Other Russias, an extraordinary portrait of life in Russia today, and find out why she’s been hailed by The Guardian as “the brutally funny artist no gallery in Russia will touch”.
Victoria will be on hand for a Q&A with Nadia Beard, Editor in Chief of The Calvert Journal, followed by a book signing and drinks.
Read The Calvert Journal‘s review of Other Russias here.
About the book
Other Russias by Victoria Lomasko (translated by Thomas Campbell)
“Victoria Lomasko’s gritty, street-level view of the great Russian people masterfully intertwines quiet desperation with open defiance. Her drawings have an on-the-spot immediacy that I envy. She is one of the brave ones.” – Joe Sacco, author of Palestine
What does it mean to live in Russia today? What is it like to grow up in a forgotten city, to be a migrant worker or to grow old and seek solace in the Orthodox church?
For the past eight years, graphic artist and activist Victoria Lomasko has been travelling around Russia and talking to people as she draws their stories. She spent time in dying villages where schoolteachers outnumber students; she stayed with sex workers in the city of Nizhny Novgorod; she went to juvenile prisons and spoke to kids who have no contact with the outside world; and she attended every major political rally in Moscow.
The result is an extraordinary portrait of Russia in the Putin years – a country full of people who have been left behind, many of whom are determined to fight for their rights and for progress against impossible odds. Empathetic, honest, funny, and often devastating, Lomasko’s portraits show us a side of Russia that is hardly ever seen.
Published by Penguin.
About the author
Victoria Lomasko works as a graphic artist with a focus on graphic reportage. Drawing on Russian traditions of documentary graphic art (as practiced during the Siege of Leningrad, in the Gulag, and within the military), Lomasko explores contemporary Russian society, especially the inner workings of the country’s diverse subcultures, such as Russian Orthodox believers, LGBT activists, migrant workers, sex workers, and collective farm workers in the provinces.
Her work has appeared in mainstream print publications in Russia and abroad, and exhibitions in Russia and throughout Europe. Lomasko has collaborated extensively with various non-profit human rights organisations on creating materials for publication and taught workshops in places of incarceration. She is the co-curator of two long-term art and activism projects: Drawing the Court (with Zlata Ponirovska) and The Feminist Pencil (with Nadia Plungian).
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