The Magnitogorsk Art Gallery is the only art museum in this industrial city. The idea of creating a museum of fine arts emerged in the early years of the city's existence, but the gallery was only opened half a century later, in 1980, and received its own building in 1986.

The gallery has hosted exhibitions from the collections of leading museums in the country, such as the State Tretyakov Gallery and the State Hermitage. Among them were exhibitions like "Drawings by Russian Masters of the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries," "Western European Art of the Renaissance," "Western European Engravings of the 15th and 18th Centuries," "Monuments of Culture and Art of the Ancient World," as well as projects like "Contemporary Art from the Collection of Inkombank," exhibitions by O. Tselkov, L. Purygin, Yu. Babich, "Graphics by Mikhail Shemyakin" from a private collection, and a personal exhibition by Eduard Drobitsky in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Arts.

In 2007, the gallery opened the information and educational center "Russian Museum: Virtual Branch," based on many years of scientific and educational developments of the Russian Museum and utilizing modern computer technologies.

The gallery's collection mainly consists of works of art from the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection includes painting, graphics, sculpture, and decorative applied art. In total, the gallery houses 7,784 exhibits, of which 5,851 are in the main fund and 1,933 in the scientific auxiliary fund. The formation of the funds is conducted by themes: "Creativity of Ural Artists," "Artistic Chronicle of Magnitka," "Pushkiniana," "The Tale of Igor's Campaign," "Bazhov's Tales," "Folk Art," "Artists of the Urals," "Art Glass," "Artists of Magnitogorsk." The foundation of the collection was a gift from the Union of Artists of the USSR, which includes more than 1,200 works from all the union republics of the former USSR. The collection also includes applied art items from neighboring countries, such as ceramics from Uzbekistan, Georgia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia, tapestries, and leather and amber products from the Baltic states, Ukrainian textiles, and others.

The gallery takes pride in its collections of painting, graphics, sculpture, and decorative applied art. Among the well-known artists whose works are represented in the gallery are Boris Ioganson, Semyon Chuykov, Georgy Ryazhsky, Nikolai Romadin, Alexander Tyshler, Viktor Popkov, Petr Ossovsky, Evsei Moiseenko, Andrei Mylnikov, Ilya Glazunov, Vladimir Favorovsky, Evgeny Kibrik, Fyodor Konstantinov, Dmitry Bisti, Kukryniksy, Yuri Vasnetsov, Nikolai Andreev, Lev Kerbel, Nikolai Tomskiy, Viktor Tsigal, Adelaide Pologova, and others.

The collection of applied art includes exhibits from the main centers of folk crafts in Russia, as well as artistic glass from Dyatkovo, Gus-Khrustalny, Kyiv, Lviv, and factories in the Baltic states and Belarus. Special attention is given to the art of the Urals and Trans-Ural, which includes more than 1,100 exhibits. The collection features Kaslin castings, stone-carving plastic from Kungur and Krasny Yasyl, Ural painted trays, and Tobolsk carved bone. The section "Artistic Chronicle of Magnitka" continues to be replenished with works by artists depicting industrial landscapes and portraits of workers, such as Boris Prorokov, Nikolai Avvakumov, Yaroslav Titov, Vasily Khvostenko, Fyodor Modorov, Ekaterina Zernova, and Kukryniksy.

The section of Russian art of the 18th and 19th centuries includes 56 works, among which are etchings by Ivan Shishkin and works by masters of Russian engraving from the duplicate fund of the Russian Museum, such as A. Egorov, S. Galaktionov, I. Chesky, A. Ukhtomsky, I. Pozhalostin, I. Shchedrovsky, I. Repin, V. Makovsky, V. Mate, and others. Also represented are small plastic works by A. Zvenigorodsky and the canvas by Apollinary Vasnetsov.

The main tasks of the gallery are the formation of aesthetic taste, the development of artistic worldview, and the expansion of the cultural space of the city.