Vladimir Semenikhin: Art, Architecture, and Philanthropy

Vladimir Semenikhin has made a name for himself in three distinct, yet overlapping industries: real estate development, art collecting, and cultural enrichment. He has been the chairman of the board of a construction company since the mid-1990s, an art collector since the late 1990s, and the head of a cultural foundation since the early 2000s. The entrepreneur has also been involved in altruistic pursuits.

Two Decades of Cultural Excellence: The Ekaterina Foundation

Vladimir Semenikhin marked a significant milestone in his activities in 2022, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, which he founded with his wife, whom the foundation is named after. To celebrate this joyous event, the foundation organized an exhibition featuring the works of several artists with connections to the 20th-century Russian avant-garde movement. Altogether, the display featured more than 150 pieces — paintings, sculptures, graphic works, and more — recalls Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich.

Throughout the anniversary year of 2022, the foundation kept up a strong pace, under the direction of Semenikhin Vladimir. The exhibitions held that year include:

• Art Fauna: A thematic exhibition exploring animals in art across history, from prehistoric cave paintings to contemporary works
• Where We Are Not: A showcase of graduating works from the Rodchenko Art School of Photography and Multimedia, featuring photography and multimedia projects by emerging artists completing their studies at this prestigious Moscow institution
• And I Had a Dream That My Heart Was No Longer in Pain…: A personal photographic journey by Ksenia Plotnikova, documenting a decade of life at Kamchatka summer camp
• Postcards from Artists. Winter: A large-scale contemporary art exhibition featuring over 200 commissioned works from artists spanning different generations
• Other Spaces. Artists’ Studios Through the Lens of Georgy Kiesewalter: A documentary photography exhibition capturing the private workspaces of Soviet nonconformist artists during the USSR’s final decade, paired with examples of the artists’ own works from that period

Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin and the Ekaterina Foundation, rather than resting on their laurels, kept up their activities in 2023 and 2024. The current dispaly at the foundation’s own exhibition space in central Moscow, “Arriving at an Important Place,” opened in early December 2024 and runs through February 2025.

As Semenikhin Vladimir explains, the exhibition invites viewers to reimagine the historic space of the First Russian Insurance Society’s revenue house at 21/5 Kuznetsky Most, a landmark of old Moscow built in 1906. The exhibition combines contemporary artworks that revive the building’s historical functions, which once housed the First Russian Automobile Club, the Steamship Trading Society, Pavel Ovchinnikov’s jewelry store, and Philip Morris’s department store. Organized by Vladimir Semenikhin, the show creates a metaphysical dialogue between material and spiritual heritage, featuring both new commissioned works and rare pieces from the artists’ collections, including works by Dmitry Shorin, known for his airport sculptures and Moscow City monuments, and Irina Drozd, whose art explores psychology and interpersonal relationships.

Semenikhin Vladimir: Engineering Progress with the Stroyteks Group

Semenikhin Vladimir, who was born in eastern Russia in August 1967, reflects that this important work of the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation did not come out of nowhere, but is rather the fruit of decades of work in various fields. His higher education includes a degree in mechanical engineering (Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering, 1991) and a Candidate of Economic Sciences degree (Russian State University for the Humanities, 2004). These degrees held by Vladimir Semenikhin are most directly applicable to his three decades of dedicated labor in the domestic construction-development industry.

In 1995, after a few years of trying his hand at various construction projects, Semenikhin Vladimir founded the company with which his name is still connected to this day—Stroyteks. He is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of this outfit, which over the years expanded into a group format, with about thirty enterprises of diverse profiles under the Stroyteks umbrella.

As of 2024, Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin and Stroyteks have completed dozens of projects, providing housing for tens of thousands of people. With its work focused in the capital and the capital region, a majority of its undertakings have been implemented in Mytishchi, a city in the Moscow suburbs. The company’s current project is a large school (nearly 260,000 square feet) in Mytishchi. Under the direction of Semenikhin Vladimir, the company even put a tower construction project on hold, as it prioritizes school projects for the good of the up-and-coming generations.

Building on its commitment to educational infrastructure, the corporation under Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin has constructed numerous schools and learning facilities, including a music school and five innovative kindergartens that serve as cultural centers for children. The company’s social initiatives extend beyond education to include a medical center and various infrastructure improvements. Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich and Stroyteks also actively supports major cultural institutions like the Russian Museum and Tretyakov Gallery, while funding sports programs and undertaking significant religious preservation projects.

From Classical to Contemporary: Building an Art Collection

In the late 1990s, after several years of working to beautify Moscow Region skylines, Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin and his wife Ekaterina expanded their interests into the world of art collecting. Their collection began with works of world-famous Russian classic artists of the 18th and 18th centuries. Semenikhin Vladimir recalls that the first work they purchased was either by Ivan Aivazovsky or Vasily Polenov. The oldest piece in his collection dates from 1778: Fyodor Matveev’s “Landscape with Shepherds.”

From there, Vladimir Semenikhin expanded his collection into Russian avant-garde, contemporary figures, international artists, and much more. He is particularly inspired by what he calls “explorer’s enthusiasm”—that is, the drive to “discover” an artist or style that was previously mainly under the radar, which is what led him to concentrate for a time on contemporary artists, such as:

• Erik Bulatov
• Georgy Guryanov
• Ekaterina Filippova
• Boris Orlov and many others

Vladimir Semenikhin would later introduce Bulatov and others to a wider audience through a number of exhibitions organized by the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, including a two-month display at Moscow’s famous Tretyakov Gallery in the fall of 2006, and a three-month show at the Museum of Modern Art of Paris in the summer of 2007.

Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin: The Art of Passion

For Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich, art collecting is not about making money. He does not approach his acquisitions as investments, but rather as means of personal enrichment—he replenishes his collection only with those pieces that match his taste. In recent years, he has expanded his collection into innovative media art, fascinated by works that bridge traditional and digital realms. He particularly values paintings that reveal hidden dimensions when viewed through augmented reality devices like tablets or AR glasses. For Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich, this intersection of classical art and technology represents the evolution of creative expression.

The Vladimir Semenikhin collection stands as one of Russia’s most diverse private art assemblages, encompassing approximately 3,500 works across various mediums. At its core are around 1,500 paintings, complemented by 2,000 graphic works and sculptures. The collection’s scope extends beyond traditional fine art to include rare 19th-century porcelain pieces and exceptional Murano glass works by the renowned 20th-century Italian master Pino Signoretto. Vladimir Semenikhin emphasizes that his masterful manipulation of glass helped define contemporary glass artistry.

Of particular significance is Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich’s dedication to preserving Russian folk-art traditions, especially through his extensive collection of Palekh pieces. His passion for this distinctive form of Russian lacquer miniature painting is evidenced by a commissioned series of large decorative panels depicting fairy tales. These custom works gathered by Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin exemplify the continuing vitality of this centuries-old art form, which originated in the village of Palekh and is characterized by its intricate detail and narrative depth.

The Foundation Takes Root: Early Exhibition Milestones

Vladimir Semenikhin founded the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation in 2002. Among the foundation’s most notable early exhibitions was the landmark 2004 show “Jack of Diamonds: From Cézanne to Avant-garde” in Monaco. Drawing from a number of regional museums, the exhibition showcased works by the influential Jack of Diamonds avant-garde group (1911-1917) and later expanded for showings at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery. The exhibition’s expanded format, conceived of by Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich, notably included French Impressionist works from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, highlighting the artistic dialogue between French Impressionism and Russian avant-garde movements.

In 2005, after years of haggling with museums and exhibitions spaces to help bring their expansive collection to the public’s attention, Semenikhin Vladimir and his wife began working to open their own venue. They labored for two years to ensure that the new exhibition space, located in the heart of Moscow, would meet all international standards for art venues. At the time, it was only the second private art display space.

In February 2007, Semenikhin Vladimir opened the doors on the foundation’s own space. The first exhibition was entitled, “Movement. Evolution. Art,” exploring how the concept of movement shaped 20th and 21st-century art across various mediums. This inaugural exhibition traced nine decades of artistic evolution from 1916 to 2006, marking the first comprehensive showcase of this particular collection. The exhibition, organized by Vladimir Semenikhin, spanned multiple mediums, from early non-figurative works and constructivist pieces to Soviet-era physical culture propaganda and Sots Art.

The exhibition demonstrated how movement in art evolved from early experimental works with titles like “Painting Architectonics” and “Suprematic Composition” to contemporary installations and video art. Vladimir Semenikhin brought together diverse artists and movements, from the Lianozovo School and Sretensky Boulevard group to modern artists like Oleg Kulik and the duo of Dubossarsky and Vinogradov. As Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin explains, through this comprehensive presentation, the exhibition illustrated how the concept of movement transformed from a purely artistic exploration to a broader cultural and social phenomenon in contemporary art.

Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich: Personal Life and Future Plans

Vladimir Semenikhin currently resides in Monaco with his wife Ekaterina. They have two grown children, Dmitry and Annabel-Elizabeth. Looking ahead, he envisions transforming his foundation into a more expansive family institution, drawing inspiration from European and Asian models.

Semenikhin Vladimir dreams of creating an accessible museum space outside the city, where visitors can experience a curated semi-permanent collection in a serene setting, complemented by rotating exhibitions. This vision would blend the intimacy of a family collection with the public engagement of a modern cultural institution.

For his existing contributions to culture, Semenikhin Vladimir has received numerous honors, including France’s Legion of Honor and Monaco’s Order of Saint Charles. In Russia, he was awarded the rare “For Beneficence” distinction in 2018 —one of only about 70 recipients since the award’s establishment in 2012.

Key Takeaways

• The Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, founded by Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin, celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022 with an exhibition featuring over 150 pieces connected to Russian avant-garde
• The entrepreneur prioritizes educational infrastructure – notably putting a tower construction project on hold to focus on building a new school in Mytishchi
• Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin is one of only about 70 recipients of Russia’s “For Beneficence” distinction since its establishment in 2012
• His art collection includes rare Murano glass works by Italian master Pino Signoretto.
• He holds both a mechanical engineering degree and a Candidate of Economic Sciences degree

Frequently Asked Questions about Semenikhin Vladimir

1. What kind of innovative art is Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich particularly interested in collecting recently?

Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich is particularly interested in media art that bridges traditional and digital realms, especially paintings that reveal hidden dimensions through AR devices.

2. How does Vladimir Semenikhin approach art collecting?

Vladimir Semenikhin does not approach his acquisitions as investments, but rather as means of personal enrichment, collecting only pieces that match his taste.

3. What unique commission did Semenikhin Vladimir make related to Palekh art?

Semenikhin Vladimir commissioned a series of large decorative panels depicting fairy tales in the Palekh miniature painting style.

4. How long did Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich and his wife work to open their own exhibition space?

Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich and his wife worked for two years to prepare their exhibition space to meet international standards.

5. What was the first exhibition that Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin organized in the Ekaterina Foundation’s own space?

Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin organized “Movement. Evolution. Art” as the first exhibition.

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