Fabergé Museum in St. Petersburg
April 2 – 16, 2026
On April 2, the Fabergé Museum will open an exhibition of contemporary Russian artists «IN TRANSIT», which will take place as part of the First International Transport and Logistics Forum and is dedicated to an integral part of human life — transport. The exhibition is presented on the second floor in a separate exhibition space and is accessible with an entrance ticket to the main exposition of the Fabergé Museum.
Transport as an object of depiction has long been present in the creative practices of artists. It appears in art as an organic part of the overall picture of existence, as an artistic image, as an individual reflection of the authors. The task of the exhibition does not include retelling a brief course in the history of transport: most of the works are not intentional in nature, nor are they art documentation of particular types and models of transport.
The exposition features more than 80 works (painting, graphics, art photography, sculpture), whose authors are artists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Ryazan, Rostov-on-Don, Pavlovo, and Pushkin. The works have been provided by private collectors and departmental museums, and gathered from artists' studios. They are distinguished by stylistic diversity and were created at different times, predominantly in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The exposition is divided into several conventional 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 unique iconic works. For example, the first section features a collectible work by the classic of Russian constructivism, Alexander Rodchenko, «Theatre Square. Tram Line Turn» (1932).
In the «Transport of the Soviet Era» section, one can see not only works by well-known masters of the era of socialist realism — Igor Ruban, Nikolai Timkov, Viktor Proshkin — but also works by contemporary artists with an academic education — corresponding member of the Academy of Arts Anton Shumeyko and Alexander Grekov, who specializes in creating nostalgic images — reconstructions of transport from the Soviet era. Contemporary realism has become a stable trend in Russian art over the past ten to fifteen years.
The «St. Petersburg Romantic Expressionism» section also gives cause for nostalgia, being dedicated to a movement that emerged back in the 1950s–1960s and still exists today. Its emergence is associated with the early work of a community of informal Leningrad artists known as the Arefyev Circle. The exposition shows one of the most famous 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 friendly with the «Mitki» group and the «Red Sailor» publishing house. St. Petersburg romantic expressionism is a diverse phenomenon, including artists of other origins as well. Among the works of artists of the older generation are pieces by Aron Zinshtein and Andrei Vetrogonsky.
Noteworthy is the graphics of the young artist Alisa Yufa, and the vivid decorative painting of the already departed Alexander Kosenkov and Vadim Leukhin. Among those who have passed away is also the legendary Ivan Sotnikov — an artist and priest, one of the founders (together with Timur Novikov) of the «New Artists» group, and later (with Alexander Florensky) of the «ОЛЖИР» group (Society of Lovers of Painting and Drawing).
Contemporary art is one of the most diverse sections. Here there are both paintings by well-known representatives of contemporary St. Petersburg art — Alexander Dashevsky, Alexander Morozov, Andrei Rudyev — and a large-format photograph by the hero of the 1990s art scene, Oleg Kulik, as well as graphics by Pyotr Bely, Leonid Tskhe, and other artists. Among all these players of the highest artistic league, the almost monochromatic watercolor of the young self-taught artist from the Nizhny Novgorod region, Igor Volkov, stands out, as if permeated with existential melancholy.
The exposition offers the opportunity for a brief journey through different worlds of art and allows one to see how the theme of transport, as part of the reality common to us all, is refracted in 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. The works have been provided by 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 Vatrushiny. The exposition also features works from the artists' studios.
Address: St. Petersburg, Fontanka River Embankment, 21 (Fabergé Museum)
Exhibition 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.
Age restriction: 0+