MOSCOW.- Baibakov art projects is to be a lead sponsor of the forthcoming Kandinsky exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (September 18, 2009 – January 13, 2010). Maria Baibakova, Director and Founder of Baibakov art projects, Moscow, will also be co-chairing the 50th Anniversary Gala event for the museum on 16th September, which promises to be a most glittering occasion on the New York cultural calendar during the opening of the fall season.

“I am deeply honored to partner an institution as venerable as the Guggenheim in its 50th year,” says Baibakova. “It has played a pioneering role amongst museums in exploring art history from non-western perspectives. Its exhibitions of Russian, Asian and Far Eastern art have been exemplary. Great art knows no boundaries or language barriers, and Wasily Kandinsky’s career is proof of this.”

Born in Moscow, Maria Baibakova lived in New York from the age of 10 and later in London. She was educated at Barnard College, Columbia University and the Courtauld Institute, where she obtained a distinction for her Master's thesis. She quickly established herself as an enlightened patron and philanthropist, collector and a curator, working closely with emerging artists and recognized public and commercial galleries in London, New York and Moscow.

In December 2008, she launched Baibakov art projects, a not-for-profit arts venture, at the Red October Chocolate Factory in Moscow. Since then she has directed and co-curated three international exhibitions at the former factory. Contemporary Russian artists were given the opportunity, unprecedented in Russia, to create site specific work commissioned my Baibakov art projects. International London-based artists were shown in Moscow for the first time. The work of five challenging American artists were presented in the context of their American modernist forbears, and endorsed by the American Ambassador in Moscow, John Beyrle. Baibakova is now also recognized as an important private collector with her inclusion in the list of the top 200 international art collectors published in the latest edition of Art News.

Baibakov art projects’ program continues with the first major exhibition of Luc Tuymans in Moscow (September 26 – November 22), which will be held at the Red October Chocolate Factory as part of the Third Moscow Biennale Contemporary Art. This will coincide with the artist’s major touring retrospective in the U.S.A.

Baibakova will also be the co-curator of a site-specific project by artist Paul Pfeiffer, which will involve converting the “Red Hall” project space at Baibakov art projects into a “Perspective Machine.” (October 29 – November 22).