Victoria Lomasko at The Cartoonmuseum Basel

Other Russias, Basel, Switzerland

Born in 1978 in Serpukhov, south of Moscow, Victoria Lomasko studied graphics and letterpress printing at the State University of Printing Arts in Moscow before making her way into graphic reportage. Lomasko was inspired by documentary drawings from the Siege of Leningrad, from penal and labour camps, and from the military. Today, this artist focuses on Russia’s various subcultures and disadvantaged strata: from LGBT activists and sex workers, through to migrant labourers and the agricultural workers in the country’s provinces. Lomasko observes people and situations very closely, capturing them with her adept spontaneous and powerful line in a stylised, but precise manner. One of her first internationally published and renowned books was realised in collaboration with author Anton Nikolajew: a visual report on the court case against the organisers of the exhibition “Forbidden Art 2006”. Her graphic report “The Invisible and the Angry”, which points to social injustices and political suppression in Russia, was translated into German and other languages. The English version, under the title “Other Russias”, won the 2018 Pushkin House Prize for Best Book in Translation.

Alongside her work on various publications and exhibitions in Russia and abroad, Victoria Lomasko promotes human rights in various organisations, whereby she has provided drawing workshops for incarcerated youths in Russia, for example. This dedicated and internationally prominent artist will spend one month working in the Christoph Merian Foundation’s Atelier Mondial. She will also produce a sophisticated mural at Cartoonmuseum Basel for her first retrospective in Switzerland.