Naked Ambition: Kaya Mar Live Painting and Signing Session

Attentive observers of the past ten years of British politics may not have heard of Kaya Mar, but chances are they will have seen one of his pictures – at a rally, or in an agency photograph syndicated around the world, or via a viral tweet. His paintings in oils are unlikely pearls of surreal satire, gleaming in the murky political waters in which we find ourselves: a kaleidoscopic gallery of the clowns, mountebanks and villains in charge, stripped of their self-importance and thrown overboard.

Naked Ambition: 100 Pictures of the Present Crisis (Biteback), edited and introduced by the LRB’s Sam Kinchin-Smith, is the first proper account of the work of a cult figure around Westminster, promoted by recent events to the status of national treasure: a satirist laureate for Brexit Britain. To celebrate its publication, Mar will paint a new picture of the latest crisis live in the Bookshop – and sign copies of his book – from 2 p.m. or so, until it’s finished.