Vladislav Shapovalov is an artist and researcher based in Milan, Italy. He was a member of the art collective Radek Community (Moscow, 1999–2007) and has been working independently since 2008. His projects use exhibitions as a medium to investigate the intersections of historical narratives, political imaginary and geopolitical configurations.
In 2016–2017, he was a fellow in the International Fellowship Program for Art and Theory at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen in Innsbruck.
Currently, he is a PhD researcher at HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg.
The book dedicated to his long-term project Image Diplomacy was awarded a grant from Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and published by Mousse publishing in 2020.
Solo
– Image Diplomacy, curated by Sarp Renk Özer, 16 November – 31 December 2018, AVTO, Istanbul
– Image Diplomacy, curated by Emanuele Guidi, 1 December 2017 – 10 February 2018, Ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano, Italy
– Image Diplomacy, curated by Anna Ilchenko, 16 November 2017 – 25 January 2018, Moscow Museum of Modern Art with V-A-C Foundation, Moscow
Selected group exhibitions
– The Cost of Alliance, curated by Lua Vollaard and Alexandra Landre, 12 – 26 June 2025, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
– Stories of Time, curated by Nina Tabassomi, 30 July – 06 November 2022, Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck, Austria
– Protext! When Fabric Becomes a Manifesto, curated by Camilla Mozzato and Marta Papini, 23 October 2020—14 March 2021, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
– The Missing Planet, curated by Marco Scotini and Stefano Pezzato, 7 November 2019 – 27 September 2020, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
– Unexpected Encounters, curated by Solvita Krese, Inga Lāce and Andra Silapētere, 13 December 2019 - 23 February 2020, “Arsenāls” Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA), Riga
– The Fabric of Felicity, curated by Valentin Diaconov, Iaroslav Volovod and Ekaterina Lazareva, 12 September 2018 – 27 January 2019, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow
– Holes In The Wall. Anachronic Approaches To The Here-And-Now, curated by Gudrun Ratzinger, 7 February – 25 March 2018, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
– A Thousand Roaring Beasts: Display Devices For A Critical Modernity, curated by Olga Fernández López, 20 October 2017 – 4 March 2018, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain (catalogue)
– Was Tun?!, curated by Petra Gerschner, Aspekte Galerie, Munich, Germany, 2017
– Looking At The Present Through Rear-View Mirrors, curated by Andrei Siclodi, Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria, 2017
– Atlas [of the ruins] of Europe, curated by Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga and José Riello, CentroCentro Cibeles de Cultura y Ciudadania, Madrid, 2016
– Uncanny Formations, curated by Andrei Siclodi, Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria, 2016
– Fear. The Origin of the State, curated by Fedor Blašák and Christian Kobald, Nová synagóga / Kunsthalle Žilina, Slovakia, 2015
– The School of Kyiv. Kyiv Biennial, curated by Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schollhammer, Kyiv, 2015
– Sources Go Dark, curated by Valerio Borgonuovo and Silvia Franceschini, Futura Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, 2015
In 2016–2017, he was a fellow in the International Fellowship Program for Art and Theory at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen in Innsbruck.
Currently, he is a PhD researcher at HDK-Valand – Academy of Art and Design, University of Gothenburg.
The book dedicated to his long-term project Image Diplomacy was awarded a grant from Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and published by Mousse publishing in 2020.
Solo
– Image Diplomacy, curated by Sarp Renk Özer, 16 November – 31 December 2018, AVTO, Istanbul
– Image Diplomacy, curated by Emanuele Guidi, 1 December 2017 – 10 February 2018, Ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano, Italy
– Image Diplomacy, curated by Anna Ilchenko, 16 November 2017 – 25 January 2018, Moscow Museum of Modern Art with V-A-C Foundation, Moscow
Selected group exhibitions
– The Cost of Alliance, curated by Lua Vollaard and Alexandra Landre, 12 – 26 June 2025, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands
– Stories of Time, curated by Nina Tabassomi, 30 July – 06 November 2022, Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck, Austria
– Protext! When Fabric Becomes a Manifesto, curated by Camilla Mozzato and Marta Papini, 23 October 2020—14 March 2021, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
– The Missing Planet, curated by Marco Scotini and Stefano Pezzato, 7 November 2019 – 27 September 2020, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
– Unexpected Encounters, curated by Solvita Krese, Inga Lāce and Andra Silapētere, 13 December 2019 - 23 February 2020, “Arsenāls” Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA), Riga
– The Fabric of Felicity, curated by Valentin Diaconov, Iaroslav Volovod and Ekaterina Lazareva, 12 September 2018 – 27 January 2019, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow
– Holes In The Wall. Anachronic Approaches To The Here-And-Now, curated by Gudrun Ratzinger, 7 February – 25 March 2018, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna
– A Thousand Roaring Beasts: Display Devices For A Critical Modernity, curated by Olga Fernández López, 20 October 2017 – 4 March 2018, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain (catalogue)
– Was Tun?!, curated by Petra Gerschner, Aspekte Galerie, Munich, Germany, 2017
– Looking At The Present Through Rear-View Mirrors, curated by Andrei Siclodi, Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria, 2017
– Atlas [of the ruins] of Europe, curated by Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga and José Riello, CentroCentro Cibeles de Cultura y Ciudadania, Madrid, 2016
– Uncanny Formations, curated by Andrei Siclodi, Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria, 2016
– Fear. The Origin of the State, curated by Fedor Blašák and Christian Kobald, Nová synagóga / Kunsthalle Žilina, Slovakia, 2015
– The School of Kyiv. Kyiv Biennial, curated by Hedwig Saxenhuber and Georg Schollhammer, Kyiv, 2015
– Sources Go Dark, curated by Valerio Borgonuovo and Silvia Franceschini, Futura Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, 2015
Screenings
—International Film Festival Innsbruck, 10 October 2021, Leokino 2, Innsbruck, Austria
– Image Diplomacy, in "Komplexe Bilder 4: De/Konstruktionen", curated by Maia Gusberti, 4 June 2019, Kino REX, Bern, Switzerland
– FOTO WIEN, Festival Headquarters, 23 March 2019, Vienna
– Image Diplomacy, 19 December 2018, SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul
– Besides the Screen. Vaults, Archives, Clouds and Platforms: Archiving and Preservation in the 21st Century, 2 – 3 July 2018, King’s College, London and 5 – 6 July 2018, CIAC-ISMAI, Porto, Portugal
Symposia curated
– Exhibitions of Influence. Display and Film as Political Medium, Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria, 30 May 2017. Speakers: Susan Reid (Loughborough University), Oksana Sarkisova (Central European University), Anna Ladinig (University of Innsbruck)
Lectures, public talks and conferences
He is a lecturer at NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts, Milan.
– Socialist Visual Cultures and Decolonization, Circulations, (Re)Interpretations, and Resistances of Visual Models in the Context of the Cold War, The French National Institute for Art History (INHA), Paris, 11 February 2026
– History Has No Lessons For Us, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands, 20 June 2025,
– Art Past Present with Vladislav Shapovalov. Hosted by Farrah Karapetian and Joes Segal, The Wende Museum, Culver City, CA, 16 June 2021
– Image Diplomacy. Vladislav Shapovalov in conversation with Elvira Vannini and Emanuele Guidi, Ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano, Italy, 7 February 2018
– Forgotten Internationalism & Filmmakers of the World, Unite!, National Gallery in Prague / Tranzit, 14 December 2017
– Between Diplomacy and Dissidence: Politics of Exhibition and Curatorial Positioning During the Cold War, Modernidad(es) Descentralizada(s), University of Barcelona, 13 December 2017
– Image Diplomacy. Vladislav Shapovalov in conversation with Erika Balsom, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 18 November 2017
– Image Diplomacy: Archives That Were Never Meant To Be Kept, The 5th Garage International Conference "The Archive: Savior, Inventor, Witness", Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 13-14 October 2017
– Image Diplomacy, Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria, 21 October 2016
– Archives in Contemporary Art: Artist as Researcher and Artistic Practices within the Archives, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 27 November 2015
– Future Present. Archives in an Expanded Field, Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow, 18 June 2014
– Focus East, official programme of Bologna Art Fair, Bologna, Italy, 28 January 2014
– Archive in Art-Practice, Baza Institute, Moscow, 16 December 2013
Publications
– Vladislav Shapovalov, Image Diplomacy, On The Question of Exhibition Part 2, Parse Journal, Issue 13.2 – Summer 2021
– Vladislav Shapovalov: Image Diplomacy, Edited by Emanuele Guidi and Andrei Siclodi, Mousse Publishing, 2020 (monograph)
Catalogues
– Protext!, Centro Pecci, Nero Publishing, 2021
– The Missing Planet, Centro Pecci, Nero Publishing, 2020
– A Thousand Roaring Beasts: Display Devices For A Critical Modernity / Mil bestias que rugen. Dispositivos de exposición para una modernidad crítica, Edited by Olga Fernández López, CAAC, Seville, Spain, 2017
Press
– How to Deal With Dystopia: “The Missing Planet” at Pecci Centre, Prato / Mousse magazine, March 2020
– Krievu izcelsmes mākslinieks Vladislavs Šapovalovs: pieredžu redaktors, Interview with Šelda Puķīte, Delfi.lv, January 2020 (in Latvian)
– 222 Emerging Artists Worth Investing In / 222 artisti emergenti su cui investire, Exibart, 2019, p. 205.
– On the Circulation of Images. Essay by Gudrun Ratzinger, Camera Austria International No. 145, March 2019, pp. 23–34. (in English and German, .pdf)
– The Cold War of Image Diplomacy. Conversation with Maria Abdulhamid. The Americana Issue, Archivio magazine, December 2018, p. 164–169.
– Image Diplomacy, review by Andrey Shental, Flash Art magazine, 9 February 2018
– The politics of exhibiting – The exhibiting of politics. Conversation with Elvira Vannini, Hotpotatoes, 10 January 2018 (in Italian)
– Bringing communism back to Moscow. Conversation with Andrey Shental, Artgiude, 22 January 2018 (in Russian)
—International Film Festival Innsbruck, 10 October 2021, Leokino 2, Innsbruck, Austria
– Image Diplomacy, in "Komplexe Bilder 4: De/Konstruktionen", curated by Maia Gusberti, 4 June 2019, Kino REX, Bern, Switzerland
– FOTO WIEN, Festival Headquarters, 23 March 2019, Vienna
– Image Diplomacy, 19 December 2018, SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul
– Besides the Screen. Vaults, Archives, Clouds and Platforms: Archiving and Preservation in the 21st Century, 2 – 3 July 2018, King’s College, London and 5 – 6 July 2018, CIAC-ISMAI, Porto, Portugal
Symposia curated
– Exhibitions of Influence. Display and Film as Political Medium, Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria, 30 May 2017. Speakers: Susan Reid (Loughborough University), Oksana Sarkisova (Central European University), Anna Ladinig (University of Innsbruck)
Lectures, public talks and conferences
He is a lecturer at NABA – New Academy of Fine Arts, Milan.
– Socialist Visual Cultures and Decolonization, Circulations, (Re)Interpretations, and Resistances of Visual Models in the Context of the Cold War, The French National Institute for Art History (INHA), Paris, 11 February 2026
– History Has No Lessons For Us, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands, 20 June 2025,
– Art Past Present with Vladislav Shapovalov. Hosted by Farrah Karapetian and Joes Segal, The Wende Museum, Culver City, CA, 16 June 2021
– Image Diplomacy. Vladislav Shapovalov in conversation with Elvira Vannini and Emanuele Guidi, Ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano, Italy, 7 February 2018
– Forgotten Internationalism & Filmmakers of the World, Unite!, National Gallery in Prague / Tranzit, 14 December 2017
– Between Diplomacy and Dissidence: Politics of Exhibition and Curatorial Positioning During the Cold War, Modernidad(es) Descentralizada(s), University of Barcelona, 13 December 2017
– Image Diplomacy. Vladislav Shapovalov in conversation with Erika Balsom, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 18 November 2017
– Image Diplomacy: Archives That Were Never Meant To Be Kept, The 5th Garage International Conference "The Archive: Savior, Inventor, Witness", Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 13-14 October 2017
– Image Diplomacy, Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen, Innsbruck, Austria, 21 October 2016
– Archives in Contemporary Art: Artist as Researcher and Artistic Practices within the Archives, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 27 November 2015
– Future Present. Archives in an Expanded Field, Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, Moscow, 18 June 2014
– Focus East, official programme of Bologna Art Fair, Bologna, Italy, 28 January 2014
– Archive in Art-Practice, Baza Institute, Moscow, 16 December 2013
Publications
– Vladislav Shapovalov, Image Diplomacy, On The Question of Exhibition Part 2, Parse Journal, Issue 13.2 – Summer 2021
– Vladislav Shapovalov: Image Diplomacy, Edited by Emanuele Guidi and Andrei Siclodi, Mousse Publishing, 2020 (monograph)
Catalogues
– Protext!, Centro Pecci, Nero Publishing, 2021
– The Missing Planet, Centro Pecci, Nero Publishing, 2020
– A Thousand Roaring Beasts: Display Devices For A Critical Modernity / Mil bestias que rugen. Dispositivos de exposición para una modernidad crítica, Edited by Olga Fernández López, CAAC, Seville, Spain, 2017
Press
– How to Deal With Dystopia: “The Missing Planet” at Pecci Centre, Prato / Mousse magazine, March 2020
– Krievu izcelsmes mākslinieks Vladislavs Šapovalovs: pieredžu redaktors, Interview with Šelda Puķīte, Delfi.lv, January 2020 (in Latvian)
– 222 Emerging Artists Worth Investing In / 222 artisti emergenti su cui investire, Exibart, 2019, p. 205.
– On the Circulation of Images. Essay by Gudrun Ratzinger, Camera Austria International No. 145, March 2019, pp. 23–34. (in English and German, .pdf)
– The Cold War of Image Diplomacy. Conversation with Maria Abdulhamid. The Americana Issue, Archivio magazine, December 2018, p. 164–169.
– Image Diplomacy, review by Andrey Shental, Flash Art magazine, 9 February 2018
– The politics of exhibiting – The exhibiting of politics. Conversation with Elvira Vannini, Hotpotatoes, 10 January 2018 (in Italian)
– Bringing communism back to Moscow. Conversation with Andrey Shental, Artgiude, 22 January 2018 (in Russian)