Polina Surina

Polina Surina founded ArtisDomus, a cultural strategy practice. She advises the owners of artists’ estates, private collections, heritage properties and hospitality projects in Paris, Malta, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the Gulf. She works independently of any gallery: the owner pays her, and she takes no commission from a seller.

Published by ArtisDomus, written by Polina Surina.

The work

She starts with the owner’s problem and uses art to solve it.

An art advisor buys works. A curator arranges works that already exist. Polina Surina starts one step earlier, with what the owner wants to achieve. That might be a succession, a well-run collection, or a building that has to mean something to the people who use it. She then decides what culture should do about it. Buying is one possible answer, and often not the first.

The other half of the work is translation. An artist, a collector, an owner, a hotel operator, a foundation, a museum and a business each talk about the same object in their own way. She finds the terms they can all agree on, and builds a structure that still works after the meeting.

The work covers four areas: real estate and hospitality, luxury and brands, private capital and collections, and foundations and legacy.

She turns down five kinds of work. What the practice turns down gives the reason for each.

Credentials

A doctorate in economics, and training in real estate and the art market.

She holds a PhD in Economics. She took the Oxford Executive Programme in Real Estate and studied contemporary art, art business and art curation at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

She has taught at university, where she was deputy head of department. She writes on art, architecture, design and the economics of culture for international publications.

Qualifications and competencies · Her full qualifications, and what she advises on in each area.