Flora and Fauna of BRICS

Fine arts is the most universal, explicit and colorful language of international communication. It can take the viewer on a wonderful journey through cultures, traditions and histories. When drawing their paintings for the "Flora and Fauna of BRICS" project, our artists were primarily focused on recreating the atmosphere of a specific BRICS nation through the images of its nature.

As there are both artistic and educational dimensions to the project, botanical experts were called upon to help study the flora and fauna of every BRICS nation, and select the most typical, yet vivid and alluring specimens to make their illustrations. Our exhibitions feature paintings by participants of the all-Russian environmental contest "Flora and Fauna of BRICS" as well as works by professional artists.

Some of the plants and animals are familiar to the Russian audience, while others will be a novelty. In addition to botanical and animalistic illustrations, the exhibiton features art objects made of paper. Their authors used old magazines and newspapers to create real plants and animals. Our project has brought together artists from all over the country - from Petrozavodsk to Crimea, from Kaliningrad to Sakhalin, people of all ages.

Preparatory work for the project started back in 2022, and in April 2023 the Botanical Garden hosted the exhibition "Fritillaria - the Flower of Persia" dedicated to the flora of Iran and its calligraphy. In July, the exhibition "Ay, Africa!", which explored the flora and fauna of South Africa, was successfully held. In December, a traditional exhibition featuring paintings of Indian orchids, entitled "Pearl of India", took place. And in February, as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, we unveiled the exhibition "Winter Flower" with beautiful drawings of Chinese azaleas and camellias on display.

All our exhibitions are accompanied by both lectures and workshops which teach how to draw a particular BRICS member country's national flowers.