The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Multimedia Art Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val in Moscow; the General Staff Building of the State Hermitage Museum, the New Museum of Contemporary Art and Marble Palace in St. Petersburg - all these state institutions are well known around the world and each regularly holds exhibitions of contemporary Russian art. RBTH, however, looks at the leading private commercial galleries in the two capitals where art works by contemporary Russian artists, both established ones and newcomers, can be viewed and purchased.
"Triumph is the most active Russian gallery." Source: Anna Denisova/Triumph Gallery
This is the most active Russian gallery not just inside the country but also abroad, and it often organizes exhibitions by its artists at international art fairs and events. For instance, the AES+F art group that makes large-scale multi-channel video installations, and the Recycle duo (also masters of art installations), have seen their exhibitions open on every continent, including at the Venice Biennale as a parallel program. The gallery's list of artists includes other well-known names: Dmitry Gutov, Alexander Brodsky, Gosha Ostretsov, Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubossarsky. The gallery also promotes promising newcomers, including painter Taisia Korotkova, and Alexey Vasilyev, who works in the graffiti style.
"A dozen well-known galleries are housed here, and visiting all of them can take two or three hours." Source: WINZAVOD Contemporary Art Center
Russia's leading privately owned contemporary art hub marked its 10th anniversary this year. A dozen well-known galleries are housed here, and visiting all of them can take two or three hours. The two oldest and most prestigious have long been frequent participants at international art fairs: XL Gallery, and Regina Gallery. The first is active in non-commercial art and has launched the careers of artists such as Anna Ermolaeva, and Irina Korina, who is a participant in the main exhibition of the current Venice Biennale.
Regina Gallery, however, is not shy of its commercial activity, and it has many museum-quality artists such as photographer Sergey Bratkov, artists Semyon Faibisovich and Pavel Pepperstein, as well as Tanya Akhmetgalieva who creates fantastically beautiful installations.
Other Winzavod galleries that promote Russian artists abroad are Gallery 21, pop/off/art gallery, Gallery Triangle and Pechersky Gallery.
"Over the years, works on paper, which are increasingly more popular with collectors, have become the gallery's main focus." Source: Galerie Iragui
A Sorbonne and École du Louvre graduate, Ekaterina Iragui used to work for art galleries in Paris. But in 2008 she moved to Moscow and opened her own gallery. Over the years, works on paper, which are increasingly more popular with collectors, have become the gallery's main focus. Iragui displays drawings and watercolors by Russian artists at art fairs in Paris and Vienna, as well as in Japan, Great Britain and other countries. The gallery's portfolio includes works by established Russian conceptual and post-modernist artists whose works can be found in the collection of the Pompidou Center and other institutions, and which include the artists Pavel Pepperstein, Nikita Alexeev, Viktor Pivovarov and Olga Chernysheva.
"This gallery actively travels the globe, taking part in art fairs where installations by Marina Alexeeva often are a hit." Source: Marina Gisich Gallery
One of the first private galleries in St. Petersburg, founded in 2000, is located on two floors of a mansion in the city center. This gallery also actively travels the globe, taking part in art fairs where installations by Marina Alexeeva often are a hit - miniature light boxes with doll furniture in which videos that involve live actors are played. The gallery also promotes the acclaimed photographer, Gregori Maiofis, neorealist Vitaliy Pushnitsky, installation artist Peter Belyi, and others.
"This gallery collaborates with a large number of artists working in various genres and media." Source: Anna Nova Art Gallery
This gallery collaborates with a large number of artists working in various genres and media. The performance artist, Andrey Kuzkin, who made a splash at the ARCO art fair in Madrid with his human figures moulded out of bread, exhibits here, as well as Ivan Plusch, a master of large-scale installations and a participant in the famous Glasstress exhibition in Venice in 2015. Others include David Ter-Oganyan, an adept master of Internet art and the only Russian laureate of the Henkel Art Award; and the young abstract artist, Vlad Kulkov, whose works can be found in the collections of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the Hort Family Collection in New York.
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