Art, rather than politics, will be a means by which panelists and a student aim to mend the rift between Russia and America this weekend. “Illustrating Russia: Comic Art, Graphic Narratives & Book Illustration” will be a series of presentations by artists hoping to shed light on the recent phenomenon of graphic narratives in Russia. Read more...

Photo: (Clara Vamvulescu/Daily Bruin)

The Hillman Photography Initiative chose Andrea Polli for a project-based partnership, even though she is not a photographer. Polli, an artist and professor of art and ecology at the University of New Mexico, creates technology-based art pieces to bring attention to how people use and manifest energy. Read more...

Photo: Andrea Polli, who will lecture at the Art|Sci Center on Tuesday, creates projects that visualize environmental energy. Her project “Energy Flow” was a wind-powered light display on the Rachel Carson Bridge. The work’s light animations were based on the weather conditions in Pittsburgh. (Courtesy of Christopher Litherland)

“Desert Rats” places a group of often underrepresented people on the stage. The play, staged at the Los Angeles Theatre Center through Nov. 18, follows brothers Frank and Jesse as they kidnap Amber, the daughter of a wealthy man, in an attempt to escape their economically precarious situation. Read more...

Photo: Alumni Walt Gray IV, Lila Gavares and Derek Chariton star in “Desert Rats,” a dark comedy in which two brothers kidnap a wealthy, young girl in order to extract a ransom from her father. (Courtesy of Giovanni Solis/bracero)