Ariadna Krylova (b. 1996) is an art entrepreneur, photographer, gallerist, creative director, curator of exhibition and educational projects, photography historian and educator, and art dealer. She is the founder and co-founder of three contemporary photography galleries and lives and works in Moscow.
In 2019, she participated in the 5th Photobiennale of Contemporary Photography, established by the Russian Museum. Her works are held in the collection of the Russian Museum.
Co-founder of «White Rainbow» Gallery (Saint Petersburg, 2023–2025), focused on contemporary photography
Co-founder of «FL Gallery» (Moscow, 2025–2026), focused on contemporary photography
Founder of «PHOSPHORUS», an online gallery dedicated to contemporary and antique art
____________________________________________
EDUCATION
In 2021, she graduated from the St. Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television (SPBGIKiT) with a degree in Folk Artistic Culture, majoring in Studio Management for Film, Photo, and Video Art.
She has attended masterclasses and studied with renowned photographers such as Gueorgui Pinkhassov (MAGNUM PHOTOS), Valery Plotnikov, Anna Shakina, and others.
____________________________________________
FOCUS OF PRACTICE
My primary area of work is the promotion and support of contemporary Russian art. I develop and manage commercial galleries specializing in contemporary photography. Between 2023 and 2026, I established and developed three galleries in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
I organize and curate exhibition and educational projects, as well as public and research-oriented programs, including lectures, workshops, film screenings, portfolio reviews, and both online and in-person conversations with contemporary photographers and AI-based artists.
As a creative director, I develop artistic concepts and visual strategies for creative and commercial projects at the intersection of art and science. I closely monitor developments in the art market, research emerging artistic movements, and analyze current trends in contemporary art and collecting practices. As an art dealer, I assist clients in building private collections and developing art-based interior concepts, identifying their interests and needs while selecting works that combine artistic significance with long-term investment potential.
I am also a speaker at international and national forums, conferences, and panel discussions, where I present and advocate for contemporary photographic art to diverse audiences.
____________________________________________
FL GALLERY (2025–2026)
At the invitation of Fotolab, a Moscow-based photographic laboratory with a 27-year history, I relocated from Saint Petersburg to Moscow and, in less than two months, collaborated with the laboratory’s team to establish and launch a contemporary photography gallery. I developed the gallery’s aesthetic concept and interior design, structured its operational processes, and organized its opening.
As co-founder, director, and curator of the gallery, I realized its inaugural exhibition, Somnus Vector, in collaboration with photographer Ivan Turukhano, establishing the direction for the gallery’s subsequent exhibition and educational programs. On December 23, 2025, FL Gallery opened in Neglinnaya Shopping Center, welcoming more than 200 members of the professional art community to its first vernissage, including artists, photographers, curators, gallerists, and museum directors.
FL Gallery is more than an exhibition space in central Moscow. It has transformed a well-established photographic laboratory into a unique full-cycle platform that integrates conceptual development, production, and the realization of exhibition projects. The gallery’s mission is to foster sustained engagement with contemporary photography and contribute to the development of the art sector.
WHITE RAINBOW GALLERY (2023–2025)
From 2023 to 2025, I was co-founder, creative director, and manager of White Rainbow Gallery and the White Rainbow photographic laboratory in Saint Petersburg. Under my leadership, the project made a significant contribution to the development of photographic art in Russia. Together with our team and participating artists, we pioneered a unique center for contemporary photography in the city, built upon the integration of three interconnected elements: a gallery (exhibition space), a photographic laboratory, and an art community. The gallery also served as a showcase for the laboratory’s capabilities, attracting a broad range of new clients.
In less than a year, White Rainbow evolved from a loss-making company into a sustainable institution that not only became financially profitable but also expanded to encompass two fully functioning galleries in the center of Saint Petersburg. Our team actively explored emerging artistic practices and introduced new voices to the public. Between 2023 and 2025, we realized more than twenty exhibition projects and organized over one hundred portfolio reviews, lectures, workshops, art mediations, artist talks, and film screenings dedicated to photography. More than 500 artworks across various formats and price ranges were acquired by private collectors.
PHOSPHORUS GALLERY
In 2025, Ariadna founded PHOSPHORUS, an online gallery that brings together contemporary Russian art and rare antique works.
PHOSPHORUS represents artists working within the fields of conceptual art, expressionism, and what may be described as “Russian Gothic.” The gallery’s distinctive approach lies in its combination of contemporary artworks with rare antique engravings, as well as its integration of diverse media—including photography, graphic art, painting, and sculpture—into a unified, decadent visual language. PHOSPHORUS creates a platform for art that illuminates paths through darkness and stands in opposition to conventional interior-oriented exhibition formats.
Rather than maintaining a permanent physical space, the gallery operates through partnerships with external venues, developing exhibition projects that continuously reconfigure context and generate new modes of interaction between artworks and specific sites.
Represented artists include Victoria Iva, Ivan Turukhano, Dmitry Pryakhin, Sergey Shcherbakov, Timur Etot, Ariadna Krylova, and others
Contact for collaboration:
krylovaariadna@gmail.com
____________________________________________
ON PHOTOGRAPHY
Ariadna’s fascination with photography began in early childhood and immediately became an essential part of her life — both as a way of perceiving reality and as a safe form of communication with the outside world. From 2011 to 2023, her creative research focused on portrait and documentary photography, as well as on staged artistic processes.
Today, Ariadna turns her attention to the phenomenon of “liminal spaces” — transitional zones where human presence is perceived only as a trace left by time.
Since 2016, she has actively worked with analog and other chemical processes, experimenting with narrow and medium-format film, including manual development, processing, post-production, printing, and retouching.
One of the pivotal milestones in Ariadna’s artistic biography is her work “Children.” Exhibited in 2019 at the Marble Palace, the work was later acquired by the collection of the Russian Museum.
____________________________________________
Exhibitions
2025 — Out of Time, group photography exhibition, l’appartement 83, Moscow, Russia
2019 — V Photobiennale of Contemporary Photography, Marble Palace, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia