When Irena Kuksenaite, the Latvian artist and curator, opened the Formula gallery last summer in St. Petersburg’s year-old Loft Proekt Etazhi (Floors Loft Project), a contemporary-arts complex in a former bread factory, it was further proof that the city had caught the contemporary-art bug that already has so many Muscovites seriously fevered up.

Weaned on the Hermitage and other prerevolutionary collections, the citizens of St. Petersburg have, until recently, been suspicious of all postwar art. Their wariness led Etazhi to launch tentatively, with one gallery, Globus. But it had ambitious plans. It has showcased top native talents like Sergey Shutov, a Venice Biennale alum, and non- Russians like Britain’s multimedia art star Andrew Logan. The center’s two public exhibition spaces have hosted the video art of China’s Cao Fei, a benefit for the Mariinsky Theater, and a Comme des Garçons fashion show. Today, Etazhi attracts hundreds of visitors daily.

“For too long, St. Petersburg had almost no contemporary scene, but that is changing as more investment pours in,” says Maria Romasheva, a lawyer who moonlights as Etazhi’s director. Her hopeful conclusion: “I think the city will soon see a contemporary boom.” As for Formula, there is nothing tentative about Kuksenaite’s vision. The gallery “will show art that strikes a nerve,” she says. "A Yeasty Scene" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2008 Table of Contents.