Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg
April 2 – 16, 2026
On April 2, the Fabergé Museum will open "IN TRANSIT", an exhibition of contemporary Russian artists held as part of the First International Transport and Logistics Forum and dedicated to transport — an integral part of human life. The exhibition is presented on the second floor in a separate gallery space and is accessible with a ticket to the museum's main collection.
Transport has long featured in artists' creative practice as an object of depiction. It appears in art as an organic part of the wider picture of existence, as an artistic image, as a personal reflection of individual authors. The exhibition does not aim to offer a brief history of transport: most of the works are not deliberately thematic, nor are they documentary records of particular types and models of transport.
The display brings together more than 80 works — painting, graphics, art photography, and sculpture — by artists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Ryazan, Rostov-on-Don, Pavlovo, and Pushkin. The works have been lent by private collectors and departmental museums, and drawn from artists' studios. They range widely in style and were created at different times, predominantly in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The exhibition is divided into several loosely defined sections: "Pages of History", "Transport of the Soviet Era", "Contemporary Realism", "St. Petersburg Romantic Expressionism", and Contemporary Art. Each section has its own discoveries, rarities, and iconic works. The first section, for example, features a collectible piece by the classic of Russian Constructivism, Alexander Rodchenko: "Theatre Square. Tram Line Turn" (1932).
In the Transport of the Soviet Era section, visitors can see works not only by well-known masters of Socialist Realism — Igor Ruban, Nikolai Timkov, and Viktor Proshkin — but also by contemporary artists with an academic training: Anton Shumeyko, a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts, and Alexander Grekov, who specialises in nostalgic images and reconstructions of Soviet-era transport. Contemporary Realism has become an established trend in Russian art over the past ten to fifteen years.
The St. Petersburg Romantic Expressionism section is likewise nostalgic, devoted to a movement that emerged in the 1950s–1960s and still exists today. Its emergence is linked to the early work of a community of informal Leningrad artists known as the Arefyev Circle. The display includes one of the best-known works by Vladimir Shagin, "The Scarlet Tram" (1956). The "Mitki" group is represented by works by Andrei Kuznetsov and Dmitry Shagin. In the early 1990s, Konstantin Sutyagin — now a well-known Moscow painter and writer — was close to the "Mitki" group and the "Red Sailor" publishing house. St. Petersburg Romantic Expressionism is a diverse phenomenon that also includes artists of other backgrounds; among the works by artists of the older generation are pieces by Aron Zinshtein and Andrei Vetrogonsky.
Also noteworthy are the graphics of the young artist Alisa Yufa and the vivid decorative painting of the late Alexander Kosenkov and Vadim Leukhin. Among those no longer with us is the legendary Ivan Sotnikov — artist and priest, one of the founders (together with Timur Novikov) of the "New Artists" group and later (with Alexander Florensky) of the OLZhIR group (Society of Lovers of Painting and Drawing).
Contemporary Art is one of the most diverse sections. It includes paintings by well-known figures in contemporary St. Petersburg art — Alexander Dashevsky, Alexander Morozov, and Andrei Rudyev — as well as a large-format photograph by Oleg Kulik, a leading figure of the 1990s art scene, and graphics by Pyotr Bely, Leonid Tskhe, and others. Among these major artistic figures, the almost monochromatic watercolour of the young self-taught artist from the Nizhny Novgorod region, Igor Volkov, stands out, seemingly imbued with existential melancholy.
The exhibition offers a brief journey through different worlds of art and shows how the theme of transport, as part of the reality we all share, is refracted through various artistic communities.
The exhibition has been prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the Airports of Regions Management Company. Lenders include the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation; the Historical and Educational Complex on the History of the Academy and the Maritime Fleet of the Admiral S.O. Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping; the Museum of the Russian University of Transport; the St. Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation named after Chief Marshal of Aviation A.A. Novikov; the United Museum of Civil Aviation in St. Petersburg; the Marina Gisich Gallery; the "Art Forsazh" Gallery; the Elena Abramova Gallery; and St. Petersburg collectors Denis Khimilyaine, Igor Sukhanov, Boris Faizullin, and Natalya Lukyanova, and Elena and Sergey Vatrushin. The display also features works from the artists' studios.
Address: St. Petersburg, Fontanka River Embankment, 21 (Fabergé Museum)
Opening hours: daily from 10:00 to 20:45, except on days when lectures are held — March 17, 19, and 24 — from 10:00 to 17:45.