Libby Leshgold Gallery

Join us on Wednesday February 5th at 4pm for the READ Books launch of Alla Gadassik’s new bookGraphite: Animated Traces(Govett-Brewster Art Gallery), including an open drawing session led by artist and educator Vjeko Sager. Materials and refreshments provided.

Graphite: Animated Traces (published by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 2024) profiles the material and cultural history of graphite as a creative medium, with close attention to its important role in contemporary art and animation. What ways of knowing does graphite enable as a drawing medium? How does animating with graphite – making moving images through extended and repetitive acts of drawing – allow us to understand the world differently? Responding with vivid analysis of pencil drawings and animated films, this book offers a richly detailed portrait of an everyday material we often take for granted.


Alla Gadassikis a film scholar and curator of animated media. She is Associate Professor of Media History + Theory at Emily Carr University, where she founded the Animate Materials Workshop. The Animate Materials Workshop is dedicated to developing animation as a method of interdisciplinary material exploration that bridges arts and sciences. As International Film Curator in Residence at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Len Lye Centre (2022-2025), Alla developed Interlaced: Animation and Textiles, a large-scale group exhibition that weaves connections between these two artforms.


Vjeko Sager is an artist and educator, whose philosophy and creativity push against the boundaries of knowability. His artwork challenges viewers to discover what lies in the space beyond reason. Vjeko facilitates the Drawing Room, a drawing club dedicated to nurturing and promoting drawing culture at Emily Carr University.

Graphite: Animated Traces by Alla Gadassik

Cover image of Graphite: Animated Traces.