Abstracts & Authors' Biographies.

The article "Eastern Encounters: Ilia Repin's Orientalist Aesthetics Abroad and at Home" focuses on Russian-Ukrainian painter Ilia Repin's engagement with European Orientalist painting and its influence on his work. Through analysis of three major paintings, the essay argues that Repin used Eastern motifs to challenge prevailing East/West and self/other binaries within the Russian imperial context. It further suggests that Repin's use of Orientalism served as a critique of the Russian state and expressed anti-imperial and anti-autocratic views amid the political tensions and evolving Ukrainian-Russian identities of the late 19th century. The essay situates Repin as a figure who intertwined national and imperial themes through a complex artistic vocabulary.