Escaping Wars and Waves is an exhibition opening next month in London, featuring reportage graphic artist Olivier Kugler‘s drawings with texts documenting the circumstances of Syrian refugees he met on assignments commissioned by Medicins sans Frontieres.
Olivier travelled to Domiz refugee camp (in Iraqi Kurdistan), Kos Island (Greece), the Calais refugee camp (France) as well as to England, Germany and Switzerland.
Some of the work has been published in Harper’s (in the United States), The Guardian and Port (UK), Le Monde Diplomatique (Germany), Internazionale (Italy) and Annabelle (Switzerland).
An 80-page book with drawings from the Escaping Wars and Waves project has just been published in German under the title Dem Krieg Entronnenand will be published in the UK under the title Escaping Wars and Waves by Myriad Editions / New Internationalist in June 2018.
The art features Syrians the artist met in Domiz refugee camp, became the overall winner of the World Illustration Award 2015 and were exhibited at Somerset House in London.
The exhibition at Rich Mix will present rough sketches, original drawings and prints and is supported by the Arts Council England. All of the artwork will be for sale and half of the profits will be donated to MSF.
The exhibition will launch with an opening night on Wednesday 6th December which will include a brief Q&A hosted by John L. Walters, the editor of Eye Magazine, with Olivier Kugler, Catherine Thomé (of MSF) and Corinne Pearlman (Editorial Director at Myriad Editions) on hand to speak.
• Escaping Wars and Waves runs from Wednesday 6th until Friday 29th December 2017 at Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA | Web: www.richmix.org.uk | Access to the Rich Mix’s Mezzanine Gallery, where the exhibition will be held, is free
• Olivier Kugler Official Site: olivierkugler.com
• Eye Magazine: Olivier Kugler – Bearing Witness
• We Make It Projects – Escaping War and Waves
• Olivier has started a crowdfunding campaign for an upcoming project (“From Damascus to Bogota”)
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Exhibitions