Denis Maksimov
Denis Maksimov curates and teaches contemporary art, global histories, and interdisciplinary humanities. His research focuses on transhistorical traditions of performing knowledge, heritage, and future conceptualisations in epic, rhetoric, and lecture performance.
He is a founder of Lecture Performance Archive and lecturer at Joseph Backstein’s Institute of Contemporary Art. Most recently, he served as a curator of art and programmes at Pushkin House, London, and held curatorial fellowships worldwide.
Website
Exhibitions
Curated solo exhibitions
2025-2026 Cosmic Calls, Jitish Kallat, Pushkin House, London.
2025 _n Haus, Arsen Zhilyaev, Pushkin House, London.
2024-2025 Spinning Tales, Aziza Kadyri, Pushkin House, London.
2023 Precarious Elements Terraforming: Hollow Earth, Stifled Fire, Thin Air, Thick Water, Liva Dudareva, Pet Projects, Athens.
2022 To Half Sell a Duck, David Bernstein, Keiv and The Breeder, Athens.
Curated group exhibitions
2022 Between Objects, HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki.
Overwhelming Majority? Art, Society and War in Contemporary Russia, a group exhibition, Shtager Gallery, London.
Otherness, Desire, the Vernacular, Carlos Motta and Jaanus Samma, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn.
2020 Cyber-PiraMMMida, the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale “How Will We Live Together?”.
Publications
“Heritage Unbound? Futures, Queer Politics and Performance of Memory” (with Michael Haldrup) in: Arts, Heritage and Performative Politics, ed. Laima Nomeikaite, Lars Frers and Michael Haldrup, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025.
“On Hydropolitics: from Elefsina to the World” in: Mystery 42. Futuring Waters: A Speculative Manifesto for and from the Water of Elefsina, ed. Jenny Marketou, Athens: Eleusis 2023 European Capital of Culture, 2023.
“(ALERT) Ghosts: Avenir Institute” in: (Note)Book: Is Everybody In? The Ceremony is About to Begin, ed Nadja Argyropoulou, Athens, 2023.
“Making Pyramids Disappear: Faux Horizontalism and Wild Capitalist Topologies of Speculation” (with Michal Murawski, David Roberts, Maria Mileeva) in: Speculation, ed. Marina Vishmidt, London: MIT Press, 2023.
“Imperare in Chao: Russian Dramaturgia and Political Media Technologies” in: Dopamine Fast – Minimo Globaled. Júlia Ayerbe, Lisbon: Galerias Municipais/EGEAC, 2022.
