The Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair will present 10 non-profit cultural projects

The 14th edition of the Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair will take place on September 4–6, 2026, on two floors of the Timiryazev Centre (6/1, Verkhnyaya Alley). Collectors and members of the art community will be able to see the exhibition first at the Preview on September 3. Cosmoscow is supported by General Partner Sber: GigaChat and Sber Private Banking, Automobile Partner VOYAH, and companies including Hutton, MR, ēdomo, Lamoda, Beluga, Tête de Cheval, Lamoda, 12 STOREEZ, Azbuka Vkusa, Konstantin Chaykin, Geltek, Mistral, Chupa-Chups, Kids Program’s partner Kangaroo, and The Carlton, Moscow.

The fair will occupy 17,010 square meters, spanning two floors and the courtyard of the Timiryazev Centre. Visitors will see 113 gallery booths, over 20 partner projects, and 9 non-profit cultural projects. The Cosmoscow Talks program will be held in the Lecture Hall and Media Forum. Kangaroo will prepare the Cosmoscow Kids area for young visitors, offering workshops, games, and creative activities.

The Cosmoscow Foundation for Contemporary Art will present projects showcasing the diversity of the current Russian contemporary art scene. They include: Igor Samolet's large-scale “Splash” installation (Cosmoscow 2026 Artist of the Year), the Tretyakov Gallery’s Samara branch installation “Common Kitchen” (Cosmoscow 2026 Museum of the Year), and the MIRA Creative Community’s stand dedicated to the future MIRA Museum in Suzdal (Cosmoscow 2026 Institution of the Year). The Collector’s Eye stand will showcase the collection of the winner of the Collector of the Year award, whose name will be announced at a press conference on September 3.

In 2026, cultural projects and initiatives will be presented by RBC, the New Collectors Foundation, the Limonov Art Foundation, collectors Denis Khimilyayne, Mila and Denis Pak, and the Georgy Guryanov Apartment Museum.

Press applications and tickets for the 14th Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair can be obtained on the fair's official website. 

Cosmoscow 2026 Artist of the Year: Igor Samolet

Igor Samolet's large-scale installation “Splash” will serve as the fair’s visual landmark, a nine-meter-tall “beacon” amid the swift, shifting, and colorful waves of the fair’s audience. Composed of three parts, the work symbolically depicts the life cycle of an artistic idea: from its emergence and formation as a work of art to its eventual sale and purchase. It will focus on the artist’s vulnerable position within the contemporary art system, the need to simultaneously create, present, explain, and release their own work.
 

“Splash” invites viewers not only to observe but also to become part of this process, directly engaging with the installation. Through play and participation, Samolet’s work questions the boundary between artistic expression and its transformation into a marketable object, and how the artist's relationship to their work changes during this moment.

Cosmoscow 2026 Museum of the Year: Tretyakov Gallery’s Samara branch

The Tretyakov Gallery’s Samara branch opened in 2024 in the historic Maslennikov Factory Kitchen, a prominent landmark of the Soviet avant-garde. At the Cosmoscow fair, the museum will present the “Common Kitchen” installation, imbued with the Samara artistic context. The installation inverts the familiar logic: everything is turned inside out, the private becomes public, and visitors find themselves fully engaged in the artistic expression and co-authors of a conversation about contemporary Russian culture.

Cosmoscow 2026 Institution of the Year: MIRA Creative Community

The MIRA exhibition at Cosmoscow will offer a glimpse of the future museum in Suzdal, scheduled to open in the spring of 2027. The stand will bring together works from various eras and artistic practices, reflecting the collection’s diversity and its dialogue with theater, music, and contemporary art. Classical painting, avant-garde, and contemporary works will come together to form a unified space where past and present engage in a vibrant dialogue. This stand is not only a presentation of the collection but also a first glimpse of the future MIRA museum.

Collector’s Eye exhibition

The stand will showcase the art collection of the winner of the Collector of the Year award, established by the Cosmoscow Foundation in 2025. This initiative aims to promote collecting to develop the Russian contemporary art industry, as well as to create opportunities and favorable conditions for recognizing personal contributions to the art market.

The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony, which will take place on September 3 during the press conference of the 14th edition of the Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair.

RBC

Continuing its series of non-commercial stands and the RBC Visionaries line, RBC will present a new project co-created with the One and a Half Rooms Museum and its architect, Alexander Brodsky. At the center of the exhibition is an immaterial image placed within the purely material space of the fair. A small wooden cube standing in the center of the booth, like the museum's memorial space, will be empty. Gazing into the void is an opportunity to pause, to hold your breath, leaving behind the walls of the object everything that seems important: any objects or needs. Nothing but ephemeral clouds racing across the sky, giving birth to images and memories. The same formula for eternity, revealed by two Brodskys, each in their own distinct language.

Limonov Art Foundation: “Menagerie”

The Limonov Art Foundation was founded in 2023 by entrepreneur and collector Sergey Limonov. Its activities are aimed at supporting and developing contemporary Russian art, including the acquisition of works and the organization of various artistic events. At the Cosmoscow fair, the foundation will present the project “Menagerie” by Vladimir Kopeikin, a young rising star of the Russian art scene. This open-to-the-public installation will combine a display of stained glass windows with a sculptural group depicting animals. The animal figures, crafted from sheet lead, appear naturalistic, but the steel structures supporting them suggest otherwise: their natural nature requires cultural supports, pillars, and crossbars to be fully realized.

Georgy Guryanov Apartment Museum

At the Cosmoscow 2026 art fair, the Georgy Guryanov Apartment Museum will present a traveling exhibition dedicated to the life and work of the neo-academic artist, drummer for the band Kino, and St. Petersburg’s leading dandy. The museum opened in 2026 in the apartment where Guryanov spent the last 13 years: the space has retained its original layout and aura, and the collection comprises thousands of items, from musical artifacts and paintings to antique furniture and fashionable clothing. At the fair stand, the Museum will showcase the highlights of its collection: works and museum objects by Georgy Guryanov, Viktor Tsoy, Timur Novikov, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring.

New Collectors Foundation: “Thorns, Roses, and the Best in Me”

As part of the non-profit program at the Cosmoscow fair, the New Collectors Foundation continues to introduce viewers to new names in collecting and presents selected works from the collection of Anastasia Krattli, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and patron of the Garage Museum.

The exhibition “Thorns, Roses, and the Best in Me” evokes the image of a fantastical garden and brings together artists who create mythopoetic worlds in which the tragic and the comic, pain and joy, beauty and ugliness coexist as parts of a single whole, recalling the dual nature of life.

The exhibition title is a partial title of Mila Gushchina’s work “The Best of Me, the Best in Me” (2025).

un[Pak]ing: “Bella and the Woods”

un[Pak]ing, a non-profit project by Mila and Denis Pak, unpacked its collection last season. This season, the Sobo Gallery and MARSHAK's (Dima Korolev) total installation “Bella and the Woods” will be unpacked.

Bella is an unattainable image of beauty in 12 canvases, contained within a labyrinth constructed by the lyrical protagonist from his obsessions and disturbing visions. It is composed of Soviet-era wall doors and scratched fences—a journey of thought that has lost its boundaries and the search for beauty, love, and meaning. At the Preview, a performance by actor and musician Petr Skvortsov will heighten the sense of defocus and elusiveness.

Denis Khimilyayne: the book “If It's Not So” by Olga and Oleg Tatarintsev

“If It’s Not So” by Olga and Oleg Tatarintsev is the third book from Denis Khimilyayne’s publishing program. Phrases by Wittgenstein, Beckett, Arendt, and Heidegger, taken out of context, are woven into a new paradoxical text. The same artistic language is continued in “That’s What You Think”, a collaboration between DAY OFF MOOD and the Tatarintsevs. The patterns created by the artists interact with form, fabric, and body movement, transforming clothing not into a reproduction of a work of art, but into an independent statement.