Dasha Zhukova

Dasha Zhukova
Native name	Дарья Александровна Жукова
Born	Darya Alexandrovna Zhukova (1981-06-08) 8 June 1981 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Russian
Education	University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A. 2004)
Spouse(s)	Roman Abramovich (m. 2008)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Alexander Zhukov and Yelena Zhukova

Darya "Dasha" Alexandrovna Zhukova (Russian: Дарья Александровна Жукова; born 8 June 1981) is a Russian-born businesswoman, art collector, magazine editor, and founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art and Garage Magazine. She is married to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Early life and education

Zhukova was born as Darya Alexandrovna Zhukova in Moscow on 8 June 1981. Her father is Alexander Zhukov, an oil trader. Her mother is Yelena Zhukova, a Russian scientist of molecular biology. Her parents separated when she was 3. In 1991, she moved with her mother to the United States, settling in the Houston area as her mother had relocated due to work. They would later move to Los Angeles, California.

Zhukova attended a Jewish day-school in California. She attended Pacific Hills School and graduated in 1999. She graduated with honours from the University of California, Santa Barbara with degrees in Slavic Studies and Literature. After becoming involved with Roman Abramovich, she returned to Moscow and later moved to London, where she entered London’s College of Naturopathic Medicine. She did not complete the programme.

Career

Zhukova co-founded the fashion label Kova & T in 2006, and she also sits on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), an organization she has given generously to.

In 2008, Ms Zhukova founded the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, a nonprofit organization supporting the advancement of contemporary art and culture in Russia and abroad. In 2012, the Center launched the first comprehensive art-education program and public archive of Russian art in the country. In 2014, the institution changed its name to Garage Museum of Contemporary Art and, the following year, moved to its first permanent home, in Gorky Park. The building, designed by Rem Koolhaas, is a preservation project that has transformed a 1968 Soviet Modernist restaurant into a radical space for exhibitions, publishing, research, and education.

Ms Zhukova is the creative director of New Holland Island in St Petersburg, overseeing the commercial and architectural development of the eight-acre island in the heart of the city. The island was created by Peter the Great and has lain vacant for almost 300 years. Known now as “art island”, the development will include cultural spaces, as well as commercial and residential property.

In February 2009, Zhukova was appointed editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine Pop. Many in the industry saw her as an unlikely replacement for launch editor Katie Grand. The experiment lasted three issues, and she resigned from that position in November 2010.

In addition, Ms Zhukova is the editor in chief of Garage Magazine, a biannual print publication that focuses on the collaboration between contemporary art and fashion. She also sits on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and is a founding member of the Culture Shed in New York.

In 2011, GARAGE Magazine was launched by Ms Zhukova, who serves as the editor-in-chief. The magazine took its name and spirit from Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow - the groundbreaking international art institution Zhukova founded in 2008.

Since its inception, GARAGE Magazine has worked with many of the world's most celebrated creators, and initiated an array of global artistic dialogues. Among the magazine's contributors are artists such as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Nick Knight, Marc Jacobs, Richard Prince, John Baldessari, Inez & Vinoodh, and Patrick Demarchelier.^[5]

The Wall Street Journal has mentioned Zhukova's "burgeoning arts empire".

Personal life

Her husband married in a secret marriage, is Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch and the main owner of the private investment company Millhouse LLC. The couple have two children together: a son named Aaron Alexander, born in 2009 and daughter, Leah Lou, born in 2013, both children were born in the USA.

Racist Chair Controversy

In 2014, a photograph of Zhukova sitting on a chair designed as a mannequin of a black woman was featured on Buro 24/7, an online fashion publication. The photograph was widely criticized as racist. Buro 24/7 promptly cropped the chair out of the photo and Zhukova apologised, describing the chair as artwork and as "commentary on gender and racial politics". Zhukova added, "I utterly abhor racism and would like to apologise to those offended by my participation in this shoot".

External links

• Garage Magazine
• Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
• Socialite Dasha Zhukova Sat on a Black Woman 'Art' Chair – featured in The Cut