When the Russian army invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Pictoric Illustrators Club launched the #SupportUkrainePIC campaign to raise global awareness of the violence and suffering in Ukraine. Initially conceived as a virtual exhibition of images from the war, artists in exile have established international contacts and are now also organizing real exhibitions and raising money to support Ukraine. In March and April, the Erlangen International Comic Salon published many of these illustrations on its website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and some works were also printed in the newspaper Erlanger Nachrichten. The fees for the publication will benefit humanitarian aid projects in Ukraine.

Pictoric Illustrators Club is an association of illustrators, graphic designers and visual artists from Ukraine founded in 2014. The members express their creativity and originality with current means and techniques of contemporary art. The aim is to promote quality illustration art and to provide an international forum for aesthetically outstanding artists from Ukraine. Pictoric organizes national and international exhibitions, master classes, lectures and round tables, including the annual illustration exhibition at the Ukrainian Book Fair in Kiev. Pictoric also sees itself as a critical facilitator in the collaboration between artists and publishers, especially with regard to supporting young and innovative artists.

The digitally reproduced prints in the exhibition are united by the urgency of the historical situation and the initiative's clearly stated ambition to bring these images to the world. Images that give a deep insight into the horrors of war, and the mental state in which Ukrainian society finds itself. There are silent and personal works, striking ones with militant slogans, and drawings that are abstract and universally readable. As harrowing as the illustrations may be, they also give hope. For where there is still art, all cannot be lost.