The Perm State Art Gallery holds one of Russia's finest collections of Perm wooden sculpture — a distinctive regional tradition of carving religious figures from local timber that flourished from the 17th to 19th centuries. The pieces are strange and powerful: Christ figures with pronounced Slavic features, angels with elaborate carved wings, village saints with expressions somewhere between serenity and suffering. The style is recognisably Russian but distinct from the painted icons of central Russia.
Alongside the wooden sculpture, the gallery has a good collection of paintings covering Russian art from the 18th century onward, with particular strengths in 19th-century landscape and portrait painting. The collection of works by artists connected to the Ural region is thorough. Allow two hours; the wooden sculpture alone justifies the visit.