Denis Maksimov is a historian of art and knowledge. His practice encompasses contemporary art, global histories, theory, and interdisciplinary humanities.

Denis’s expertise spans art and intellectual history from the ancient Greek world to contemporary theory, including institutional critique, political imaginaries, critical museology, and the art world ecosystem. His research focuses on modes of performing knowledge, heritage, and future approaches to storytelling and lecture performance.

  • Denis is a guest curator at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery. He curates exhibitions and programmes addressing the relations between aesthetics, politics, and epistemology.

    He was a curator of art and programmes at Pushkin House, London (2023-2026); guest curator at Helsinki Art Museum (2021-2022) and Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum (2019). He developed projects for the Victoria & Albert Museum, Marres House for Contemporary Culture, and galleries in Brussels, Tallinn, Athens, and London. He organised international exhibitions and public programmes in the context of the Venice Biennales of Art and Architecture (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 & 2022), São Paulo Biennale (2016), Tbilisi Architecture Biennale (2020), Ural Industrial Biennial (2017), Art Basel Miami, London Art Fair, and Cosmoscow.

    Denis was curator-in-residence at U-jazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, Fire Station Artists’ Studios in Dublin, and Atelier Fidalga in São Paulo; a founding curator of Penthouse Art Residency in Brussels, Kunsthalle Vysotka in Moscow and Fortune Teller gallery in Athens. He is a co-founder of Avenir Institute.

  • Denis is a lecturer at the Backstein Institute of Contemporary Art. He teaches art theory, cultural history, aesthetics and politics, and critical humanities. He develops custom-made educational programmes and moderates talks.

    Denis was a lecturer at the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts (2026), a co-convenor of PPV: Politics and Aesthetics in the Global East (2018-2022) at the University College London and a visiting professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (2019).

    Denis defended his PhD in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh. He earned a BA in Politics and an MA in European Studies and pursued a PhD in Politics at HSE Moscow; he has a CertHE in International Security from Stanford University, a DipHE in Fine Art from the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and an MRes in Art and Design from the KdG University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

  • Denis advises on art collecting, creative projects, and ideation. Currently, he helps shape several private art collections and set up art foundations. As a mentor, he offers individual and group educational courses and developmental sessions, facilitating the formation of individual style and strategy of approaching the art world for collectors, curators, and artists.

    As a guide, he accompanies individuals and groups to pivotal art and cultural events, including art fairs, biennials, festivals, and exhibitions. He leads travelling seminars and discursive walkthroughs at art museums, galleries, cultural memory sites, etc.

    Denis has extensive experience of working with think tanks and centres of expertise in policy-making. He has been consulting on cultural policies and political communications organisations such as the EU-Russia Centre, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the European Geopolitical Forum, the Eurasia Competitiveness Institute, Strategy Partners, the Institute of Contemporary Development, DAI, among many others.

  • Denis regularly chairs panel talks, conferences, symposia, conversations with opinion leaders in arts and humanities, and other events.

    He has contributed to academic conferences, think tank events, art fairs, art gallery events, as well as at prestigious platforms like Creative Time, St Gallen Symposium, World Business Summit, PRIMER San Francisco, and the Association of Professional Futurists. He gave public talks at the Universities of Cambridge, Cologne, Bremen, Edinburgh, Namur, Leuven, St Andrews, Roskilde, Tallinn; FAAP (São Paulo), The New School (New York), Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht), among other institutions.

    Denis writes about art and culture at large. His latest book chapter was published in Art, Heritage, and Performative Politics in 2025. His texts have been published in numerous leading venues, including MoMA, Doppiozero International, Ocula, Obieg, Conceptual Fine Arts, Italian Art Guide, Moscow Art Magazine, Arts of the Working Class, A*Desk, the Brussels Times, and exhibition catalogues, books, and volumes. Denis’s opinion pieces and peer-reviewed essays have appeared in Law and Politics, Insurance Business, Euractiv, Radio Free Europe, and think tanks’ publications in Brussels, Washington, Moscow, etc.