We have heard of the Erarta Gallery in Manhattan that features contemporary Russian Art and decided to pay it a visit yesterday.  It turned out to be a real gem that is dedicated to promoting contemporary Russian art both domestically and on the international stage.  Erarta’s headquarters are in St. Petersburg, Russia and it is the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia with over 2300 works by more than 170 artists in its collection.  Its New York gallery, located on Upper East Side, is one of five such affiliated galleries spread globally.

My friend Artem Mirolevich curates the Gallery and has his paintings for sale there.   Artem gave us a tour of the three-story Gallery and introduced us to its manager, a non Russian lady with Misha as her name. Misha explained to us that Erarta regularly stages both solo shows and thematic group exhibitions of Russian contemporary artists. Currently, the title of the exhibition is Russian Roulette, which contains works by Eugenia Kosushkina, Evgeniya Buravleva, Irina Filatova and Pavel Otdelnov, running until June 20, 2014.  Russian Roulette artworks actually reflect the roulette scenario – chance and the unpredictability artists encounter in their creative process. The Moscow Artists take risks as they dialogue between instinct and intellect capitalizing on opportunities and realizing their visions through action of strategic colors and mixed media. These selected artists address themes such as identity, global perspectives, luminescence and childhood imagination in revealing their Moscow in its beauty and vanity.

While we appreciated all the works presented, my favorite paintings were by Artem.  The three art pieces that really stood out had messianic and apocalyptic theme, with a staggering attention to detail.  The crown jewel of the Artem’s work featured at the Gallery is entitled The Third Temple and is set in Jerusalem at the time of the coming of the Messiah.  Artem labored six months to complete the paining and sells it for $25,000.

Please see more of Gallery’s artworks in our Gallery Page.

Erarta Gallery is located on 1043 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, Tel: 646 476 6341

Opening times are Tuesday – Saturday 10am-6pm.