Danila Polyakov (born 1983) is a Russian artist and performer. He became famous as the first male supermodel from Russia to take part in the world's leading fashion shows. As a model, he worked with David Bradshaw, Stephen Meisel and Sam Taylor-Johnson. Manifesting fashion in his art experience, Danila turned to the graphic genre, and later to work with textile and embroidery. In his objects and performances, which convey complex experiences of reality, the artist explores themes of self-identification, physicality, sexual and gender identity. His practice is a key tool for studying oneself and his connections with the outer world. He has been working with the ART4 Museum since 2009.

“Danila creates projects in an instant and literally out of nothing. When I saw Danila’s work made from empty sheets of paper on the wall, I realized he could transform any space. And, while until 2018 there were mainly small drawings, from that moment on he could own any size. Every artist works in his own size, and Danila owns whichever size your mind dares think of.
He, actually, had worked with fabric all the time, since his very first public exhibition “Beware Your Desire”, when he made some nasty clothes for the exhibition opening. He combines his ownership of space with the sewing skills he mastered back in the days of his modeling career to create objects of art”.

Igor Markin

Solo exhibitions:
2024 Madonna in Paradise, ART4 Museum, London, United Kingdom
2023 Babtets, ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2022 Sport, ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2020 Dermis, ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2019 Patchwork-David-SpongeBob, ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2018 Light, fragile, tender. ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2016-2017 Background. ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2015 Teatro, ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2013 Natura. 8-th International Photobiennale "Fashion and Style in Photography". RuArts Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2009 The Naughty Noughties. Riflemaker, London, UK
2009 Beware of your desire. ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia

Selected Group Exhibition:
2018 - Circus! The circus! The circus! ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2017 HAHAHAMOSCOW. ART4 Museum, Moscow, Russia
2014 VOLLIPSIS. JM art management agency, Los Angeles, USA
2010 Kamasutra spoon. Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
2010 New Old New. Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia
2009 New Old New. Paris, France

Performance participation:
2017 performance by Narine Arakelyan “Wedding in Venice”. Parallel program of the 57th Venice Biennale. Venice, Italy
2013 Andrei Bartenev’s opera ballet “Three Sisters”. Open Stage Project, Moscow, Russia