Every Picture Tells a Story: Illustrated Art from Poland The Polish Book Institute

Wed May 11th


If a picture can tell a thousand words, today’s artists, illustrators and designers have a lot to say! 


Join best-selling and incredibly talented husband and wife tetam Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński, authors, illustrators, and creators of hugely successful Maps book series and design superstars Malgorzata Gurowska and Joanna Ruszczyk, creative team behind The Locomotive, Poland’s most innovative and controversial book based on Julian Tuwim’s famous Polish children’s poem.  Together with Richard Reeder, President Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, they'll explore nuances of using art as a tool for storytelling, how unusual design formats can often drive the narrative, and whether you truly can judge a book by its cover.  Book signing follows. 

 

Additional information Book Expo America and Books from Poland.


Photos - Charles Osgood and Steve Leonard.



05/11/16 - 05/11/16

7p-8p


Małgorzata Gurowska and Joanna Ruszczyk are the designer and journalist team behind one of Poland’s most innovative new books:The Locomotive, based on Julian Tuwim’s famous Polish poems for children. Their new graphic reinterpretation for adults stimulates the imagination with train wagons full of Jewish people, soldiers, gays and lesbians, animals, as well as inanimate objects accompanied by political commentary, summarizing the inequality and social injustices challenging and posing difficult questions about Poland’s national identity, racism, anti-Semitism, and attitudes towards the environment and animals.

Designer Małgorzata Gurowska is an acclaimed graphic artist and designer born in 1977. She received a Bologna Ragazzi Award in 2008. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, she is an assistant at Prof. Zofia Glazer’s Drawing Workshop, her alma mater and is a member of the Association of Applied Graphic Designers (STGU) and a co-member of the art group CMYK, which specializes in book art.

Her work has received the Bologna Ragazzi Award, the 2007 Polish IBBY Section Book of the Year title, honorable mention in the Polish Association of Book Publishers competition The Most Beautiful Books of 2007, and a special mention at the International Illustration Biennial in Bratislava (2009).  (Photo by Krzysztof Dubiel)

   

Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński are an incredibly talented husband and wife graphic designer and book author team.  They are both graduates of Maciej Buszewicz’s Book Design Studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and founders of HipopotamStudio. They are the authors of such books as H.O.U.S.E., What Will Become of You?, and creators of the hugely successful Maps, and theWelcome to Mamoko book and activity series.

Their books have been published in twenty countries and are a visual feast for readers of all ages, with lavishly drawn illustrations featuring not only borders, cities, rivers, and peaks, but also places of historical and cultural interest, eminent personalities, iconic animals and plants, cultural events, and many more fascinating facts associated with every region of our planet. They have won numerous awards for books and Internet projects, including the prestigious, international Bologna Ragazzi Award (2010) for their book What Will Become of You? Daniel is an instructor at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.

 


Richard Reeder has had a distinguished career in the city of Chicago working in government as well as social service and educational organizations, including serving as the Executive Director of the Polish American Association (then known as the Polish Welfare Association). He is the author ofChicago Sketches.  Richard teaches literature courses at the Oakton Community College Emeritus Program and is a popular speaker on literary, political and social matters in the Chicago area.  He is the founder and the facilitator of the Chicago Jewish Authors Literary Series, and also moderates the monthly book club at the historical Cliff Dwellers Club. Richard is currently the President of the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. He was the moving force behind the Saul Bellow Centennial celebration last year.


Performers
Aleksandra Mizielińska, Daniel Mizieliński, Malgorzata Gurowska, Joanna Ruszczyk and Richard Reeder. Photos - Charles Osgood and Steve Leonard.

Tags: Literary, New Europe, 2016