RUBAE – Freight Passion

“WAR ARCHIVES” 2023–2025

RUBAE is a Ukrainian writer based in Kyiv. After his 2023 RUBAE – THE BOOK had a conceptual series of paintings on a specific freight train model in focus his latest publication Freight Passion “WAR ARCHIVES” is a continuation and expansion of this idea. From 2023 to 2025 he kept on doing pieces on his favourite local model but also put attention to other models as well which circulate different since the war changed the economical infrastructure of the Ukraine.

“This time, I’ve gathered under one over a harmonious collection of wagons featuring works created all over Ukraine – under the sound of air-raid sirens, on days when every trip could have been the last.”

The 220-paged hardcover also features additional content of the Kovalska company model from the first book’s era but also includes tags, line pieces and street bombings by RUBAE and his crew mates. In a short introduction chapter he gives insight into the odd situation of painting graffiti in times of your home country being under constant attack.

“Graffiti in wartime is a kind of meditation. It’s like visiting a therapist – a way to deal with your inner struggles, to understand yourself, to accept reality.”

But the hand numbered and signed book also tells stories about positive aspects of painting these freight trains like the appreciative reactions by many railway workers and even the decision of the country’s biggest model railway to includes RUBAE pieces on their miniature freight trains.

220 pages, 23,7 cm x 30,4 cm, neon hardcover, signed and numbered
Language: English/Ukrainian
Release date: March 2026
Publisher: RUBAE