Sergei Tchoban

Sergei Tchoban: Architectural Drawings opens a window into the work of a draftsman-architect who treats drawing as a diary, a philosophical instrument, and a dialogue. Through sustained, analytical, and fantastical renderings, Tchoban explores the interplay of history and modernity, reality and imagination, and the balance between preservation and daring transformation. His urban mise-en-scènes reveal the relationships between the iconic and the background, the unique and the ordinary, the man-made and the natural, while tracing spaces that remain open-ended and evocative. He envisions architectural sections impossible to cut, reconstructs buildings from memory, and reflects on continuity, proportion, harmony, and the spirit of place. From the historic streets of his native Saint Petersburg to layered visions of Berlin, deconstructed monuments of ancient Egypt, and submerged towns along the heroic Volga-Don Canal, Tchoban reimagines vanished cultures, envisions audacious architectural undertakings, and honours the poetry of ruin. Rich in contrast, scale, perspective, and drawing techniques, his works guide exploration of real and imagined environments, offering a meditation on how history, architecture, and imagination shape the urban world—and the fragile, enduring beauty of a city in perpetual transformation.

Vladimir Belogolovsky is a curator and founder of Curatorial Project, a New York City collective that produces, curates, and designs architectural exhibitions worldwide. He curated exhibitions of Sergei Tchoban's drawings in New York, Buenos Aires, Bangalore, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, and Venice.