Portraits of Mushrooms Exhibition Book

The Museum of Russian Art has mounted two solo exhibitions of watercolors by the world-renowned botanical artist Alexander Viazmensky (alexandermushrooms.com).  Opening in 2014 and 2024, the exhibitions at TMORA focused on realistic depictions of Russia's native mushrooms, so remarkably captured by the unerring brush of this outstanding artist.  

Alexander Viazmensky is a resident of St. Petersburg, Russia.  He graduated from the Academy of Arts in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1991.  His superb works can be found in museums and private collections around the world, including the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens in London.  Viazmensky teaches watercolor painting at the Komarov Institute in St. Petersburg and conducts workshops in the United States. He is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and one of the founders of the Mycological Society of St. Petersburg.

Known from antiquity, botanical art strives to depict plants and fungi in precise scientific detail, critical for identifying particular species.  True-to-life renderings of these living organisms on paper foster observation, patience, and appreciation of the functionality, diversity, interdependence, and intricacy of the living world.  Viazmensky focuses on one specific area of the natural world: mushrooms. 

Mushroom hunting is a national pastime in Russia.  Clad in waterproof attire, millions of Russian mushroom hunters leave home on an early August or September morning to spend a day roaming the woods in search of the delicious gifts from the forest: wild mushrooms. 

A scholar of mushrooms, Gordon Wasson, divided all cultures into mycophile (mushroom-loving) and mycophobe (mushroom-fearing).  Wasson wrote about mycophilic cultures, "These are the areas where mushrooms are considered friends, where children gather them for fun before they can read and write, where no adult feels the need for a mushroom manual."  According to Wasson, Russia is one of the foremost mycophile societies on the globe.  And the artist Alexander Viazmensky is one of the foremost enthusiasts of this culture. 

TMORA is grateful to artist Alexander Viazmensky for sharing his beautiful art with Minnesotans and thanks his lifelong friend Michael Peltsman for representing the artist in the U.S. 

This book is a tribute to Viazmensky on the occasion of his 80th birthday. 

ISBN: 9798991165716, copyright 2026.