New York-based Russian artist Vitaly Komar will make a special appearance at the Wende Museum in Culver City on March 23 at 4 pm. Komar will comment extemporaneously on selected images from The Wende Museum's collection of more than 200 Perestroika-era hand painted poster artworks. Space is limited and reservations are required: info@wendemuseum.org or 310-216-1600, ex. 305.

As part of the "two-man collective" with Alexander Melamid who founded Sots Art in 1972 and a member of the boisterous group of artists associated with Moscow Conceptualism, Komar used paintings, installations and performances to scrutinize history, poke fun at it, play with it, translate it, re-envision it, leave it behind in the USSR only to return to it in America. He is in a constant discussion with the demons of the Soviet historical heritage and its irrational forces.

The image above is Komar's Lenin with Crown.