Gray Area members are invited to join us for an intimate studio visit with Art in Protest Resident & Incubator Member Liliya Kvatsabaya! We'll be hanging out online with the artist, getting an up-close-and-personal tour of the artist's virtual installation in New Art City.

In particular focus will be the work "Neglection": the response of a Belarusian artist who immigrated to the United States to escape election fraud and police violence in Belarus. Using her own experience of participating in peaceful protests and solidarity chains in Minsk in 2020 Liliya Kvatsabaya created compositions consisting of fragmented objects that are combined with her self-portraits. The project "Neglection" consists of scenes filled with the artist's memories of the events of 2020 in Belarus, as well as her sensation and difficulties faced by an entire nation in the struggle for freedom. Organic and inorganic forms, built together, layer by layer, immerse the viewer in an environment of sticky horror and danger. Five scenes of the project are accompanied by music created by the Belarusian musician Morbid Kvlt and allow the viewer to plunge into the atmosphere of pulsating anxiety and ask the viewer how to find the strength to resist while living in despair?

About the Artist:
Lilia Kvatsabaya is a Belarusian illustrator and graphic designer based in Hawaii. Lilia was a student at the State Academy of Arts, but she had to interrupt her studies and relocate to the United States due to the political unrest in Belarus, following rigged elections in August 2020. In her work, Lilia portrays the injustices felt by the Belarusian people, and mass violence perpetrated by the police. She draws on her own experiences participating in peaceful protests and chains of solidarity in Minsk. Lilia’s posters and illustrations depicting the Belarusian democracy movement have been exhibited internationally in Germany, Japan, and Lithuania.