Bio
Polina Polikarpova, born in Kharkiv, Ukraine. BA in the history of art from Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. She is an independent photographer based in Kyiv working on both long-term personal projects and various photo assignments.
During the 2010s, combining the roles of photographer, stylist, and location manager in one person, Polina models images and scenes in the outskirts of her native Kharkiv, focusing on its local poetics, which reached its peak in "Pretty Ghetto" photo project, released as a photobook in 2025 by Osnovy Publishing.
Playing with fashion photography and using its tricks and clichés, the author creates her anthology of extravagant images and their endless mimicry of the environment. Polina discovers the aesthetic side of Ukrainian daily life and girlhood through decades, millennial childhood, and escapism.
Currently, Polina is exploring escapism from a fresh perspective, drawing on her experience of civilian life in Kyiv since the start of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, viewed through the lens of 2000s video game aesthetics.
Group exhibitions
2023
2022
- Paysage présage / La Chambre, Strasbourg, France
- Reclaiming Agency: Ukrainian Women Photographers Today / Southern Utah Museum of Art, USA
- With a Chance of Precipitation (photo screening) / Recontres d’Arles, Arles, France
- Ukraine Moments / Innkai, Passau, Germany
- The Foreboding Landscape / OFF Piotrowkowska, Lodz, Poland
- In the name of Freedom (Ukrainian Women Photographers Organization) / Chaussee 36, Berlin
- Vizura 2022 // reboot / Galerija Ulupuh, Zagreb, Croatia
- Ukraine: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow / Núllið gallerý, Reykjavik, Iceland
2021
2020
- Line of Contact / Noch gallery, Odesa
- Chaiki / Okno bar, Kyiv
2019
2017
2016
- Exhibition of Ukrainian book layouts by RODOVID / Bateau Concorde-Atlantique,
- Port de Solferino, Paris
- Unknown / Yermilov-centre, Kharkiv, Ukraine
- Litoralis / Drukarnya cultural platform, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
- Odesa//Batumi Photo Days / Museum of Odesa Modern art
2014
- Art show POPHOUSE / Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Festival TERRA FUTURA / Fabrika shopping mall. Kherson, Ukraine
- SeeMe Takeover / Time Square, NY City (projection on screen)
- Exhibition of ukrainian photographers / ElevenArt gallery, Renn, France
- After Yesterday / Tea Factory gallery, Odesa, Ukraine
- MOTHER / Doomed gallery, London, UK
2013
- Faceless, part II / Museum Quartier, Vienna, Austria (projection on screen)
- Days of apartment exhibitions / Sumskaya street 19, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Festivals
2022
2021
- KINOKO / Kyiv
- Berlin Photo Week
2020
2019
- Second biennial of the young art / Kharkiv, Ukraine
2018
- SlobodaCult / Uzhhorod-Mukachevo, Ukraine
2017
- Tetramatika / Lviv, Ukraine
- Festival of young artists / Kyiv
- Krakow Photo Month: ShowOFF section
2016
- Polycopies / Paris
- Porto Franco, visual program “Litoralis” / Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
- Odessa//Batumi photo days / Odessa, Ukraine
2014
- Terra Futura / Kherson, Ukraine
Personal exhibitions
2022
2017
- Heart of the darkness / Hotel “Zakarpattya”,
- Uzhhorod, Ukraine
- 38 / Izone, Kyiv, Ukraine
- Pretty Ghetto / Petit Paris cafe-patisserie,
- Kharkiv, Ukraine
2016
- 38 / Plast Art gallery, Chernihiv, Ukraine
- 38 / ComeIn gallery, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2015
- 38 / EastFOTO gallery, Grunweld, Germany
2014
- Sexy Rarity / Gallery “21”, Sumy, Ukraine
Residences
2024
- Three dimensions of Bar’s ceramics / Bar, Vinnitsya region, Ukraine
2022
- Gallery Hinten / Chemnitz, Germany
- R.o.R Residency / Nova Gorica, Slovenia
2021
- Ruda project / Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine
2017
- Sorry, we have no rooms available / Uzhhorod, Ukraine
- SWAP : UK/Ukraine / Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Perceived identities : to have or to be? / Kharkiv, Ukraine
2016
- Litoralis / Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
Publications
2022
2020
2018
- Bitter magazine (London) #1
- Perfect Strangers (San Francisco, US) #1
2017
- Fotograf magazine (Czech Republic) #29
- DepositPhotos.com
- (project “Art photographers vs stock cliches”)
2016
- Vogue Ukraine (September)
- NYLON Korea (August)
- BRETT magazine (Southern Korea)
- BirdInFlight.com
2015
Recognition
2021
2019
- Member of UPI collective (Ukrainian Photographic Institute)
2014
- Member of NSPAU (National Society of Photo Artists of Ukraine)
2013
- Scholarship nominal photographic grant named Alexey Ivanitskii (Kharkiv)
2011
- Member of UPHA (Ukrainian Photographic Alternative)