POLINA ZHADKO · CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

Multidisciplinary artist, music artist Velesova Nav (Велесова Навь), writer, and film director.

My primary practice is focused on artistic research at the intersection of art and science. I create interactive installations, light-based works, and paintings enhanced with augmented reality (AR) to visualize and explain the principles of quantum physics. This project has evolved beyond contemporary art into a transdisciplinary ecosystem, expanding into literature, music, and cinema.

Polina Zhadko (b. 1998, Moscow) is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of contemporary art and scientific research.

Her international journey began in 2016 when she moved to Tokyo to study Japanese language and contemporary art theory at the Intercultural Institute of Japan. In 2019, she continued her studies in South Korea at Seoul National University, where she also started her professional artistic practice.

Upon returning to Moscow, Polina expanded her technical and conceptual expertise through studies at the Russian Academy of Crafts (sculpture) and the Baza Institute of Contemporary Art. She later continued her education in the UK, studying in Cambridge and London.

Zhadko’s practice is defined by artistic research into the laws of quantum physics, which she visualizes through interactive installations, light-based works, and paintings enhanced with augmented reality (AR). Her ongoing project has evolved into a transdisciplinary ecosystem, expanding beyond galleries into literature, music, and cinema.

Participant in over 50 contemporary art exhibitions in Russia and internationally. Works are held in museum collections and private collections in Russia and abroad.

• 2025 · EC Cambridge, England — Language and Culture.
• 2023 · The Baza Institute (Institute of Contemporary Art), Moscow.
• 2020 · Russian Academy of Crafts, Moscow — Sculptor / Mold Maker.
• 2020 · Art Matita School, Moscow — Academic Drawing.
• 2020 · Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
• 2017 · Intercultural Institute of Japan, Tokyo — Japanese Language and Contemporary Art.

Nominee for the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Prize (2022). Ranked among the top contemporary artists in Russia by ARTEEX and ART-INDEX.

• Movement is Life (2022)
• ARTEEX artist profile
• ART-INDEX artist profile
• Press & Interviews

Works by Polina Zhadko are held in museum and private collections. Her CV names the following museum collections:

• Tsiolkovsky State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics — Kaluga, Russia.
• Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics of DOSAAF Russia — Moscow, Russia.

Permanent exhibition

UFO Over the Sea (2020) is part of the permanent exhibition at the Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics in Moscow.

Russian Gallery — XXI Century

• Atoll (2020)
• Unity and Struggle of Opposites (2020)

Both works are held in the collection of Russian Gallery — XXI Century magazine.

Private collections

• Pink Mist at the Foot of Mount Fuji (2020)
• River of Life (2019)

View museum and private collections

Alongside her artistic practice, Polina Zhadko curated exhibition projects at the Creador Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow.

Is It Possible? · 2022

Curatorial project at Creador Center for Contemporary Art. The exhibition also appears in the artist’s selected group-exhibition archive.

Read the exhibition feature on Porusski.me

Only Words · 2023

Curatorial project at Creador Center for Contemporary Art.

Related archive

Selected Group Exhibitions

Explore curatorial projects

Selected solo exhibitions from the artist’s CV.

2023

• Quantum Path — Khodynka Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• Quantum Meridian — Meridian Cultural Center, Moscow, Russia.

2022

• Quantum Leap — Creador Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
• Investigations into the Quantum / Inquiries in the Quantum — BIS ART GALLERY at Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.

2021

• Art Sublimation — Format Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

2020

• Philosophy of Life — Art Deco Museum, Moscow, Russia.

View selected solo exhibitions

Polina Zhadko has participated in more than 50 contemporary art exhibitions in Russia and internationally. The following selection is documented in her CV.

2025

• Black Wigwam — exhibition project, Mars Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.

2023

• Sergey Kuryokhin Prize Nominees Exhibition — Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.
• Science as Art — art cluster residence, Tavrida.Art, Tavrida, Russia.
• NFT. You’ll Have to Cross Over — Gallery Zdes on Taganka, Moscow, Russia.

2022

• Metamodern Swing — BIS ART GALLERY at Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
• Is It Possible? — Creador Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia.
• Creative Wednesdays — international art project, New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• Expo 2020 Dubai — NFT artwork presented at the pavilion, Dubai, UAE.

2021

• Art Shopping — international contemporary art fair, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France.
• Sputnik — international exhibition dedicated to the first satellite launch, ROSCOSMOS Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia.
• Group Exhibition — Art Cave Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland.
• Russian Art Prize — Moscow House of Artists, Moscow, Russia.
• Talent of Russia — All-Russian Contemporary Art Competition, Gostiny Dvor, Moscow, Russia.

2020

• The Chancellery — group exhibition and performance within the Parallel Program of the 7th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, 25 Kadr Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
• Art Week in the Czech Republic — Gustav Mahler House, Jihlava, Czech Republic.

2019

• Art Week in China — Beijing, China.

View selected group exhibitions