The co-founder of Fine Art Shippers Oleg Kushnirskiy is also widely known in the American and international art space as a collector of antique Russian icons. His valuable collection featuring rare examples of Orthodox iconographic art spanning the 17th-19th centuries is currently getting ready for its first-ever museum exhibition in the US, which will be held at the Museum of Russian Art (TMORA) in Minneapolis, MN. The icon exhibition starts on October 26, 2024, and will be available to TMORA visitors until January 26, 2025.
Oleg Kushnirskiy’s Path to Collecting Icons
Oleg Kushnirskiy was born into a Jewish family in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. He moved to Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg) in his childhood, where he developed an interest in art and pursued a career as an art photographer. While in Leningrad, Oleg had an opportunity to work with many private collectors and large-scale institutions, including the State Hermitage Museum. The Kushnirskiy family emigrated to New York in 1992, where Oleg continued art-related activities and established a Russian heritage store.
Russian Icon Exhibition at the Museum of Russian Art
The upcoming icon exhibition hosted by the Museum of Russian Art is titled “Masterpieces of Sacred Art from the Oleg Kushnirskiy Collection.” It crowns many decades of Oleg Kushnirskiy’s collecting work, which he started soon after moving to the US. Already well-established in the art field as a skilled photographer, Oleg developed a keen interest in the aesthetics of late Russian icon painting. He has been compiling a collection of rare icons created by the masters of Palekh, Mstyora, and Guslitsy – all widely famous centers of icon painting in Russia – for many years.
Oleg Kushnirskiy’s specific area of interest is the iconographic scheme of The Resurrection (Descent into Hell), featuring a full cycle of liturgical events, which was especially popular among Palekh icon painters. The exhibition’s visitors will also be treated to the unique pleasure of viewing the miniature painting style of Palekh masters – an iconographic technique unique to that region and historical period.
Fine Art Shippers Is Responsible for the Exhibition’s Transportation
With the majority of icons in Oleg Kushnirskiy’s collection, representing old and fragile cultural and religious heritage artifacts, their transportation from New York to the exhibition in Minneapolis is organized with exceptional regard to safety. Possessing extensive experience in handling antique icons, our team is solely responsible for the shipping process to the Museum of Russian Art and back to New York after the exhibition is over in January 2025. Fine Art Shippers is proud to sponsor and be part of such an important event for the Kushnirskiy family and looks forward to the opening of the show this month.