Art from a new angle: the most unorthodox exhibitions in Moscow’s museums
This digest features seven uncommon exhibitions in Moscow’s museums that change your regular outlook on art, including paper sculptures from Taiwan and Asian puppet theaters.
Threads of Memory Ends November 14, 2026
The Exhibition Halls of Moscow’s Mosart Gallery invites everyone to the Threads of Memory exhibition that explores personal, familial and common memories through photographs, fabrics, wood, embroidery, and other materials.
Marina Sazonenko works with family archives and migration routes, creating images with blank faces, open for the viewers to be interpreted as they wish. Yulia Altukhova uses archival photos on wooden planks, embroidery, and cyanotype images. Zhanna Kulikova reaches for the memories of loved ones through flowers embroidered on photographs.
Location: 19 Svobodny Prospekt
From Galoshes to Art Ends October 31, 2026
The From Galoshes to Art exhibition is presented by Bogorodskoe Gallery. The exposition focuses on the history of Krasnij Bogatir plant, the close link between industry and the new art that took shape in the first half of the 20th century.
Founded in 1887, the plant existed for over a century, while its products were known far outside Moscow. It became vitally important from 1923 on, providing the USSR population with galoshes and rubber boots.
The exhibition displays the plant products, augmented with archival photos and a short documentary detailing the production process. Considering the popularity of galoshes among the Soviet culture personalities, there is quite a lot of humorous poetry and other art dedicated to those rubber shoes.
Location: 5/6 Otkrytoye Motorway
Paper Sculpture. The Ecology of Taiwan Ends January 10, 2027
The Palace of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich small exhibition hall presents the Paper Sculpture. The Ecology of Taiwan exhibition by Hung Hsin-fu. The artist has been doing paper sculptures for over 30 years, exhibiting in Russia, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, and other countries of the world.
The exposition consists of sculptures representing the endemic Taiwanese animals and toys focused on the environment and folk traditions.
Location: 39/69 Andropov Prospekt
Puppet History Museum. Ends December 31, 2027
The Davydkovo Gallery discovers the world of puppets living in a secret room. Unique characters came from puppet theaters of India, Myanmar, Indonesia, China, Japan and Europe to tell their stories to kids and adults.
The museum presents both old postcards of children playing with puppets and huge mobile objects made by modern artists. Lana Letta’s private collection formed the core of the exposition.
Location: 22 Kremenchugskaya Street
Frequencies 7.0. Against the Method. Endless Science. Ends October 4, 2026
The Na Peschanoy Gallery presents Frequencies 7.0. Against the Method. Endless Science. The exhibition is focused on the formation of scientific knowledge and the overlap between science and modern art. Artists explore new forms and methods, experiment and address the issues of cognition. The exposition includes works that focus on science and research, installations that verify hypotheses and multimedia projects that use data collection as part of their visual message.
Location: 23/7 Novopeschanaya Street
Sketches of Small-Town Life Ends October 11, 2026
Museum of Russian Lubok and Naïve Art presents an exhibition by Yuri Sherov called Sketches of Small-Town Life.
The artist turns mundane scenes: shop queues, town festivals, quiet courtyards into live commentary, where reality mingles with gentle irony and warm outsight.
Multifigured compositions draw viewers in with numerous details of the familiar small-town lifestyle, inviting you to slow down and take a fresh look on the beauty of small everyday moments.
Location: 10/1 Maly Golovin Pereulok
The Horse Code. Ends October 11, 2026
New Manege invites everyone to an exhibition focused on equestrian imagery in culture and arts. It features works by Moscow and Saint Petersburg artists from the 1970s, sculptors, pottery artists, and smiths.
The exposition is based around exploration of the ways the co-existence of humans and horses has served the formation of the cultural code and artistic language. The horse is presented there as a metaphor for memory, tradition, and inner energy. The exposition, featuring pieces from the Free Artists of Saint Petersburg collection, private collections, and artists’ workshops,
demonstrates how modern artists reinterpret the equestrian imagery while letting the horse remain a symbol of power, freedom, and loyalty.
Location: 3/3 Georgievsky Pereulok
