THE ARTS RESISTANCE PRESENTS Modern Russian Avant-Garde Series: Evgeny Avilov

The Arts Resistance is proud to present the watercolor and oil paintings by Evgeny Avilov, the Russian artist behind the infamous "Exorcism at the Mausoleum" and other extreme activism actions of the art collective "Blue Rider." Based in Moscow, Avilov represents the open opposition, a small number of artists and activists still protesting the authoritarian power at risk of their freedom and life.

Avilov will talk about the lack of freedom of expression, human rights, and rising militarism in Russia.

The Arts Resistance will give a brief presentation on the arts protest movement, reviewing art collectives Pussy Riot, Voina and Blue Rider.

Lissa Tyler Renaud, Ph.D., an internationally acclaimed art critic, will make a presentation on Kandinsky, "Der Blaue Reiter" ("The Blue Rider") and European avant-garde before World War I.

San Francisco based writers Siamak Vossoughi, Simon Rogghe, William Taylor Jr. and Zarina Zabrisky will read their work exploring the theme "Home, Patriotism, and War."

Simon Rogghe is the author of a book of collaborative poetry ”Green Lions”, a poet, fiction writer and translator of French surrealism and contemporary fiction, currently earning his Ph.D. in French literature at UC Berkeley. His work has appeared in over twenty literary journals, including 3:AM Magazine, Gone Lawn and Paris Lit Up.

William Taylor Jr. lives and writes in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Broken When We Got Here, his latest book of poetry, and An Age of Monsters, his first collection of fiction, are available from Epic Rites Press. The Blood of a Tourist, a book of new poems, will be published in early 2014 by Sunnyoutside Press. He was a recepient of the 2013 Acker Award.

Siamak Vossoughi was born in Tehran, grew up mostly in Seattle, and lives in San Francisco. He has had some stories published in The Missouri Review, Kenyon Review Online, Glimmer Train, Washington Square, and The Rumpus. His short story collection, which received a 2014 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, came out in September and it is called Better Than War.

Zarina Zabrisky is the author of five books, including a novel "We, Monsters". Zabrisky's work appeared in over thirty anthologies and magazines in six countries. Zabrisky is a co-founder of The Arts Resistance. She will be reading from a short story collection "Explosion", forthcoming in September 2015 from Epic Rites Press (Canada).

The event is free.