IZO

Dasha Zhukova, fashion designer (LUXEmag) (thanks, NI).

Dasha Zhukova opens Garage shows of contemporary Russian art. Curator Hervé Mikaeloff (Reuters):

"I see a different future in Russian contemporary art, which is nice. It's not theological anymore and I think the artists are trying to explore different ways of dealing with art."

Multiple reports: (Snob, beta.tvc.ru, gazeta.ru). I quite liked the look of Andrei Kuzkin's work, on the video on beta.tvc.ru: somene screaming in a box.

Dasha Zhukova interview (NYT):

“I would love to curate in the future,” she said, adding that motherhood means that she has to be more selective about the projects she commits to. “But the next step that I’m really interested in is building a museum of contemporary art in Moscow with a permanent collection, which the Garage does not yet have. Honestly, I would love to do everything — that is my problem.”

Oligarch/tycoon news

Viktor Vekselberg fined $40 million in Switzerland (Business Week) (thanks, MK).

Dasha Zhukova buys house in Hollywood Hills (Forbes) (thanks, MK).

Fertiliser tycoon Dmitri Rybolovlev buys Donald Trump house (Business Insider) (thanks, MK).

(Oh, and here's Garri Kasparov's new Upper West Side flat (lagran)).

Len Blavatnik to buy into Israeli TV channels (Izrus, in Russian).

Shares in Deripaska's Rusal "plunge" on Hong Kong debut (FT).

Dasha Zhukov's magazine, Pop (thepop.com). Seems quite good, at first browse.

Abramovich-Zhukova updates.

Roman Abramovich has denied the massive bill (IZO, earlier) purportedly run up at a NY eatery (cityfile).

Dasha Zhukova, as well as co-hosting the very recent MOCA LA party (IZO, earlier), is, according to info received, rumoured to be an investor in the newly-opened Prism Gallery in LA. On Prism (The Daily Truffle).

Abramovich and Zhukova drop off Art Review's Power 100 list of the most influential people in the art world (abc) (thanks, MK). Poor little diddumses, I'm sure they'll be upset. The list is here; Viktor Pinchuk is at 53; Ai Weiwei looks like a token chinaperson at 43 (Art Review). I've looked at what AR has to say about how it composes its list, which isn't much. No methodology is given, no statistical or other analytical basis, so one presumes a few folk just sit around a table, or exchange some emails, and cobble it together. In that case, so what?

Chukotka shamans have ordered the spirits to protect Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova's unborn baby (Interfax, in Russian).

Ronnie Wood misses out on multi-million-pound Dasha Zhukova commission because besotted with Russian girlfriend Ekaterina Ivanova, who is "killing him slowly" (People)?!?!?!

Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood has been dumped from a top art exhibition organised by the girlfriend of Chelsea's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.  Ron, 62 - who ditched wife Jo for a young Russian - is set to miss out on a fortune in sales after stunning Dasha Zhukova commissioned 20 paintings by him for the Moscow show.  Prime Minister Vladimir Putin headed a guest-list of megarich clients ready to pay £500,000 a time for Ronnie's work.  But Wood - who has told pals his wild fling with Ekaterina Ivanova, 20, is "killing me slowly" - failed to deliver any paintings and furious Dasha pulled the plug.  Friends blame Ronnie's romance for preventing him from knuckling down.

Tate Modern Pop Life

Dasha Zhukova baby-bump on display at Tate Modern Pop Life show (Daily Mail). 

Richard Prince image of nude ten-year-old Brooke Shields not on display at Tate Modern Pop Life show after police ask for it to be removed (Entertainment). On the Snob portal, Triumph Gallery co-owner Dima Khankin comments (Snob, in Russian):

The pedophilia problem is not in art, it's in human licentiousness (...) I'm a believer in a clear definition. Pedophilia is sex with children. If there's no sex with children, there's no pedophilia. This is a strange, sanctimonious story of politically-correct games-playing. Let's scratch off Rubens for pedophilia, Von Stuck, Michelangelo and Caravaggio."

Also opinions from Sotheby's Russian head Mikhail Kamensky (Snob), painter Vladimir Dubosarsky (Snob), painter Dmitri Vrubel (Snob), all in Russian.

The image itself is below the cut. I believe it's been exhibited quite widely until now, including at the NY Guggenheim.

Another Dasha Zhukova interview (Guardian).

Dasha Zhukova plans video recreation of Venice Biennale and show of contemporary Russian art at the Garage (Art Newspaper).

Moscow Biennale update (Artnet):

The 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Sept. 25-Oct. 25, 2009, takes place at Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture Moscow. Entitled "Against Exclusion," the show is organized by Jean-Hubert Martin, the celebrated curator of the ground-breaking "Magiciens de la terre" exhibition in 1989, who once again promises to bring works by artists from often marginalized sites in Africa and Oceania, this time juxtaposing them with contemporary Russian art. "Against Exclusion" is the first Moscow Biennale to be confined to a single exhibition space, and to be organized under the direction of a single curator.

Of course, the party of the week in Venice will be Dasha Zhukova's birthday celebration on board Roman Abramovich's yacht.

What they're saying these days: Russian art? It's all Dasha, Masha and Sasha. Dasha (Zhukova) and Masha (Baibakova) we know. But who is Sasha? UPDATE: suggestions from IZO readers include Sasha Mamut, who is redeveloping the ArtStrelka site, and Sasha Markvo, who is organising the Unconditional Love show in Venice. UPDATE: everyone piling in now to say it is Alexandrina Markvo; as one esteemed correspondent puts it, "Mamut is in for the money, not the art..."

Management crisis at the Garage? DZh has for some time been in search of a curator, I hear. And director Julia Shakhnovskaya was let go a few weeks ago, as was an English pr-type guy who had recently moved there from Vinzavod.

Louis Vuitton curator Hervé Mikaeloff is to curate a big show at the Zhukova Garage next year, some kind of a Westerner's look at young Russian art (thanks, LKJ).

The word on the floor at the Lazarides Gallery private view in London on 14 May was that gallery owner Steve Lazarides has been discussing a Garage show next year with Dasha Zhukova. Lazarides apparently attended the Garage opening in Moscow last year and thoroughly enjoyed himself. He is best known for his promotion of Banksy as the latter rose to fame and now, as far as I can tell, has three outlets in London.

As Lazarides expands, some top London galleries are closing (Scott Reyburn/Bloomberg); the Albion closure was first announced on this site (IZO).

Long but insubstantial interview with Dasha Zhukova (FT) (thanks, MK):

Zhukova, known to all as Dasha, has warned me she is running late, caught in the same traffic jam. No matter. I am being serenaded by Elvis Presley ballads, of all things. There is a 1960s Russian variety show on the television. I visit the bathroom, which is plastered with Pravda front pages featuring assorted dictators, cosmonauts and film stars. There is also a Salvador Dalí calendar, which is by far the least surreal thing in the room.

Etc etc. A missed opportunity for those interested in her art activities rather than lifestyle and atmosphere.

An exhibition of work from the collection of Christies' owner Francois Pinault will open at the Melnikov Garage on 20 March (gazeta, in Russian).