Viacheslav Poliakov
Viacheslav Poliakov (1986, Kherson) — Ukrainian artist. Graduated from Kherson State University as ateacher of fine arts. During his final years at the University, joined the community around “Тотем” centre and got engaged in media arts. Viacheslav was deeply influenced by Stas Voliazlovsky, Max Afanasiev and Viacheslav Mashnitsky. Works as graphic and motion- designer.
After 2012 Viacheslav has focused on photography. After the invitation by “Symbolum Sacrum Foundation”, moves to Lviv. There he met and started cooperating with Olena Subach. Author of photobooks “Backspaces” (self-published, 2018), “Lviv — God’s Will” (Overlapse, London, 2018), “ ‘Zhilpas’ of Janna Vozbrana” (self-published, 2020).
Viacheslav is the winner of “FoAm Talents” (Netherlands, 2017) and “Krakow Photomonth Showoff” (Poland, 2017), finalist of “Łódź Fotofestiwal Grand Prix” (Poland, 2017) and “Prix Levallois” (France, 2017). Won 3rdplace at “Vienna Photobook Festival” (Австрія, 2017) and at the Festival of Ukrainian Youth Art (Ukraine, 2017). Received scholarship from Gaude Polonia (Poland, 2018) and Symbolum Sacrum Foundation (Lviv, Ukraine, and Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2014). His works were published in FOAM magazine, GUP magazine, British Journal of Photography, Lensculture.
Website — via-poliakov.com
Solo exhibitions:
2018 — “Субач ⁄ Поляков”, “The Naked Room” gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine (curators— Lizaveta German and Maria Lanko)
2019 — “City of Gardens”, “EEP Berlin” gallery, Berlin, Germany (curator — Maya Hristova)
2019 — “Heroic Trip”, “Szara” gallery, Catowice, Poland (curator — Andrzej Tobis)
2020 — “City of Gardens”, “Galerie 21 – im Künstlerhaus Vorwerkstift”, Hamburg, Germany (curator — Jewgeni Roppel)
2020 — “‘Жилпас’ Жанни Возбранної / ‘Zhilpas’ of Zhanna Vozbranna”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Kherson, Kherson, Ukraine
2022 —“Subach / Poliakov” as a part of “Druh Druha / Друг друга” programme, Galeria Szara, Warsaw, Poland
Group exhibitions:
2012 — “Альтернативний мистецький путівник Львовом / Alternative Lviv Guidebook” project, organized by Symbolum SacrumFoundation, Lviv, Ukraine
2013 — “Новое дыхание культуры: искусство оживляет наследие / New Breath of Culture: Art Revives Hertigae”, organized by “Тотем” centre, David Kakabadze Fine Art Gallery, Kutaisi, Georgiaя, Museum of History and Ethnography, Sighnaghi, Georgia
2011, 2014 —”Terra Futura” festivals, organized by “Тотем” centre, Kherson, Ukraine
2015 — “Odesa / Batumi Photo Days” festival, Batumi, Georgia (curator — Katerina Radchenko)
2016 — “ПогранКульт: ГаліціяКульт / PogranCukt: GaliciaCult”, YermilovCentre, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2017 — “Znani-nieznani. Fotografia lwowska po roku”, as a part of “Białystok Interphoto”, festival, Ludwik Zamenhof Centre, Bialystok, Poland (curators— Andrij Bojarov, Magdalena Świątczak)
2017 — Festival of Ukrainian Youth Art (topic — “Today, which has never come”), Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine (curators— Lizaveta German, Maria Lanko, Katerina Filiuk)
2017 — “ShowOff”, as a part of Krakow Photomonth, Krakow, Poland
2017 — Grand Prix of Lodz Photofestival, Lodz, Poland
2017–2018 — travelling exhibition of FOAM Talents prize, Museum of Photography FOAM, Amsterdam, Netherlands, “Red Hook Labs” gallery, New York, USA, Beaconsfield, Great Britain, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
2018 — “Mercatorplein” gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (organized by FOAM)
2018 — “Tam gdzie teraz” (exhibition of the participants of Gaude Polonia scholarship programme), “Labirynt”gallery, Lublin, Poland (curator — Waldemar Tatarczuk)
2018 — Athens Photofestival, Athens, Greece
2018 — “Young European Photography” exhibition, as a part of “Ciruclations” festival, CENTQUATRE-Paris, Paris, France
2018 — eexhibition of shortlist of “New East Photo Prize”, Calvert Foundation, London, Great Britain
2019 — “Eating Pineapples on the Moon”, as a part of Riga Photomonth, Riga, Latvia (curators — Alnis Stakle, Arnis Balcus)
2019 — “Ostlook platform: How to deal with history” (curator — Jewgeni Roppel) в рамках Kolga Tbilisi Photo Festival, Tbilisi, Georgia
2019 — Second Biennale of Young Art, Kharkiv, Ukraine (curators— Anastasiia Yevsieieva, Daryna Skrynnyk-Myska, Borys Filonenko)
2019 — “Український зріз / Ukrainian Section” (curators — Serhii Petliuk, Vlodko Kaufman), at ІV Triennale of Contemporary art as a part of Cultural Congress “Перехід 1989” (topic — “Rituals of Transition”), tenement of Semiradsky, Lviv, Ukraine
2019 — “Поговорімо про модерність / Let’s Talk about Modernity”, as a part of the cycle of exhibitions “24H Extended”, Jam Factory art centre, Lviv, Ukraine (curators — Paulina Olszewska Antoni Burzyński)
2020 — “Staged Realities”, exhibition of “Ostlook Platform” (curator — Jewgeni Roppel) та “EEP Berlin” (curator — Maya Hristova), as a part of “Transcultural Festival Volksbühne Berlin”, Berlin, Germany
2020 — “ХерАрт / KherArt”, Museum of Contemporary Art Kherson, Kherson, Ukraine (curators— Semen Khramtsov, Viacheslav Mashnitsky)
2021 — “Imaginary Architecture for Imaginary Communities”, Galeria Centrala, Poznań, Poland (curator — Andrii Dostliev)
2021 — “Чутливість / Sensitivity”, NCMCA Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine (curators — Oleksandr Soloviov, Solomiia Savchuk, Max Horbatskyi)
2022 — “Foreboding Landscape”, as part of Lodz Fotofestiwal, OFF Piotrkowska Center, Łódź, Poland; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; La Chambre, Strasbourg, France (curator — Kateryna Radchenko)
2022 — “Slava Ukraini”, Czwartek Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2022 — “Stand with Ukraine”, as part of Photaumnales 19 (#19 Cartographies) in Church of Saint Étienne, Beauvais, France
2022 — “Ukraine — The Path to Freedom”, Noorderlicht Photography Foundation, Groningen, Netherlands (curators — Kateryna Radchenko, Wim Melis)
2022 — “Unfolding Landscapes — Landscape and Poetics in Contemporary Ukrainian Art”, Art Center Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg, Denmark; Art & History Museum, Brussels, Belgium; Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland (curators — Faye Dowling, Nataliia Matsenko)
2022 — “With Ukraine”, Hinterconti Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2022–2023 — “Ukrajins’kyj Zriz ‘UKRAINE! UNMUTED’ / Ukrainian Cross-Section ‘UKRAINE! UNMUTED’”, Contemporary Art Triennial, Central Post Office of Kaunas, Kaunas, Lithuania; Galeria Biała, Lublin, Poland; Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine (curators — Vlodko Kaufman, Serhii Petliuk)
2023 — “(Un)told: What Lies at the Basis of Photography and Memory”, Academy of Fine Arts, Gdańsk, Poland
2023 — “Artistic Expressions in Contemporary Europe”, University Art Museum of Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
2023 — “Дім за зорею / Home Beyond the Dawn”, Museo de las Artes Universidad de Guadalajara (MUSA), Guadalajara, Mexico (curator — Nataliia Matsenko)
2023 — “Home. Ukrainian Photography”, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom (curators — Viktoriia Bavykina, Maks Horbatskykh)
2023 — “Screen[far]shots: Ukraine. Work-in-Progress”, KVOST Center, Berlin, Germany (curators — Maya Hrystova, Amina Ahmed)
2023 — “Наші роки, наші слова, наші втрати, наші пошуки, наші ми / Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us”, Jam Factory Art Center, Lviv, Ukraine (curators — Kateryna Iakovlenko, Nataliia Matsenko, Borys Filonenko)
2023 — Riga Photography Biennial “NEXT 2023!”, Riga, Latvia (curators — Evita Goze, Yuliia Kryvich)
2024 — “Forever and A Day”, Melkweg, Amsterdam, Netherlands (curator — Christian van der Kooy)
2024 — “WAR(N)”, Mleczny Piotr art space, Gdańsk, Poland (curator — Agnieszka Babińska)
2025 — “Home. Ukrainian Photography”, Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, United Kingdom (curators — Viktoria Bavykina, Max Gorbatskyi)
Books
MAJDAN! Ukraine, Europa. Editors — Claudia Dathe and Andreas Rostek. Berlin: edition.fotoTAPETA, 2014.
Poliakov, Viacheslav. Backspaces. Self-published, 2017.
Poliakov, Viacheslav. Lviv – God’s Will. London: Overlapse, 2018.
UPHA. Made in Ukraine. Kyiv: BOOKSHA Publishing, 2021.
Альтернативный путеводитель. Kherson: Hileya, 2011.
Catalogues
Наші роки, наші слова, наші втрати, наші пошуки, наші ми / Our Years, Our Words, Our Losses, Our Searches, Our Us. Kyiv: ist publishing, 2024. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “Наші роки, наші слова, наші втрати, наші пошуки, наші ми” at Jam Factory Art Center in 2024, Lviv, Ukraine.
СПАЛАХ. Українська фотографія 2022–2023 / FLASH. Ukrainian Photography 2022–2023. Kyiv: Ukrainian House, 2024. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “СПАЛАХ. Українська фотографія 2022–2023” at the National Center “Ukrainian House” in 2023, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Periodicals
Club Sandwich, no. 3 (2019), the Pickle Issue.
FOAM International Photography Magazine, no. 62 (2022).
NN6T, no. 124 (2019): magazine cover.
Saliut Magazine, no. 2 (2021).
“Viacheslav Poliakov: Lviv – God’s Will.” FOAM International Photography Magazine, 2017.
Vostok Magazine, 2020, the Double Twin issue.
Interviews, Online Publications
Blanco, Alex. “Interview with Elena Subach and Viacheslav Poliakov.” GUP Magazine, n.d. https://gupmagazine.com/interview/interview-with-elena-subach-and-viacheslav-poliakov/?fbclid=IwAR1d1dSpHO20wIVbQbK9l6x7XWVdixjUaHPEI1dk98qgYeVTknZbJ47kGJM.
Dickerman, Kenneth. “Images from a pre-war Ukraine seem all the more poignant now.” The Washington Post, May 9, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/05/09/quirky-photos-ukraine-that-might-be-even-more-poignant-now/.
Fuggetti, Claudia. “The crazy aesthetics by photographer Viacheslav Poliakov.” Collater.al, 2019.https://www.collater.al/en/viacheslav-poliakov-photograohy/.
“Ideas on Talent: Viacheslav Poliakov.” Photoworks, 2018. https://photoworks.org.uk/ideas-talent-viacheslav-poliakov/.
Lichterwaldt, Daniel. “Interview. Viacheslav Poliakov.” Les nouveaux riches, December 7, 2022. https://www.les-nouveaux-riches.com/interview-viacheslav-poliakov/
Premiyak, Liza. “Elena Subach and Viacheslav Poliakov: post-industrial Silesia, but not as you know it.” Calvert Journal, November 23, 2018. https://gupmagazine.com/interview/interview-with-elena-subach-and-viacheslav-poliakov/?fbclid=IwAR1d1dSpHO20wIVbQbK9l6x7XWVdixjUaHPEI1dk98qgYeVTknZbJ47kGJM
Reznik, Natalya. “The first photo books which made it — winners of ViennaPhotoBookAward 2017.” Natalya Reznik, July 13, 2017. https://www.natalyareznik.com/2017/07/the-first-photo-books-which-made-it-winners-of-viennaphotobookaward-2017/.
Sanders, Carson. “Viacheslav Poliakov.” aint-bad, December 29, 2017. https://www.aint-bad.com/article/2017/12/29/viacheslav-poliakov/.
Snoad, Laura. “Viacheslav Poliakov shoots the ‘folk-baroque-industrial mess’ of Ukraine and Poland.” It’s Nice That, April 18, 2019. https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/viacheslav-poliakov-lviv-gods-will-photography-180419.
Ukraine. see:zeen, 2022. https://see-zeen.com/ukraine.
“Viacheslav Poliakov tells us about a visual and naive subculture.” C 41 Magazine, May 1, 2019. https://www.c41magazine.com/viacheslav-poliakov-photography/.
“Viacheslav Poliakov: Lviv-God’s Will.” Yw Yw Magazine, July 29, 2018. http://www.ywywmagazine.com/2018/07/19/viacheslav-poliakov-lviv-gods-will/.
Wiklund, Peter. “Brottstycken med Viacheslav Poliakov.” Svenska fotografers förbund, June 13, 2022. https://www.sfoto.se/redaktionellt/brottstycken-med-viacheslav-poliakov/.
Wright, Sophie. “City of Gardens.” Lens Culture, n.d. https://www.lensculture.com/articles/viacheslav-poliakov-city-of-gardens?fbclid=IwAR1zUm99xqIzT_xAjoLZj3Blj0RC0Z1vU25RahK9x7zIvBgeV07Rwbh-nM8.
Wright, Sophie. “Lviv – God’s Will by Viacheslav Poliakov.” British Journal of Photography, October 15, 2018. https://www.bjp-online.com/2018/10/viacheslav-poliakov/.
Zsófia, Danka. “Fight your own Putins. Interjú Viacheslav Poliakovval.” ÚjMűvészet, March 22, 2022. https://ujmuveszet.hu/labor/fight–your–own–putins/.
Баштовий, Андрій [Bashtovyi, Andrii]. “Камера спостереження: маршрут ‘Львів – Божа Воля’ В’ячеслава Полякова.” The Village Україна, February 5, 2018. https://www.the-village.com.ua/village/city/street-photo/268095-poliakov-photo.
Поляков, Вʼячеслав [Poliakov, Viacheslav]. “Гола Пристань — місто, якого більше немає. Візуальні спогади фотографа В’ячеслава Полякова.” Zaborona, June 9, 2023. https://zaborona.com/gola-prystan-misto-yakogo-bilshe-nemaye-vizualni-spogady/.
“Чай, кава, Дзвіниця. Олена Субач і В’ячеслав Поляков — у ‘Рівні цензури’.” Zaborona, n.d. https://zaborona.com/chaj-kava-dzvinyczya-olena-subach-i-vyacheslav-polyakov-u-rivni-czenzury/.
Шебетко, Антон [Shebetko, Anton]. “Стіл переговорів: Поляков та Нікіфоров про дослідження локального середовища та видання фотокниг.” Bird in Flight, September 17, 2021. https://birdinflight.com/nathnennya-2/crytyka/20210917-stol-peregovorov-polyakov-nikiforov.html.
Шебетко, Антон [Shebetko, Anton]. “Это твоя Родина, сынок: ‘Львів — Божа Воля’ Вячеслава Полякова.” Bird In Flight, July 5, 2017. https://birdinflight.com/ru/vdohnovenie/fotoproect/20170625-lvov-bozha-volia-polyakov.html
Projects
Artworks:
