Irene Kukota is a London-based freelance journalist, curator, and cultural commentator with a rich and varied career spanning the visual arts, theatre, literature, fashion, and lifestyle. Her writing has appeared in a wide array of international publications including The Art Newspaper (UK and Russia), House & Garden, The World of Interiors, Philanthropy Magazine, Art Focus Now, Art & Museum Magazine, Family Office Magazine, Russian Art & Culture, Russia Beyond, Russian Mind, The Theatre Times, and Stage Voices. Her work is distinguished by a multilingual, cross-cultural perspective and a strong foundation in historical research.

Irene began her professional career as a certified English teacher and translator. Communication and storytelling have always been central to her practice, whether through journalism, translating, or curatorial projects. She has interpreted and translated for numerous cultural, academic, and arts institutions, consistently bridging linguistic and intellectual divides.

Her academic background is deeply interdisciplinary and is grounded in the humanities. While pursuing a Master's degree at the University of Oxford, Irene specialised in the art and literature of Late Antique Syria and Byzantium. She served as Secretary of the Oxford Byzantine Society, organising lectures, international symposia, and academic congresses. During this time, she also acted as tutor. In 2007, she was a consultant for the documentary “The Shroud of Turin: Material Evidence”, directed by BAFTA award-winner David Rolfe.

Irene’s growing engagement with the professional art world led her to complete an MA in Fine and Decorative Arts at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She later returned to the Institute as a guest lecturer. From 2005 to 2010, she worked with Christie’s as a consultant, cataloguer, and translator for its now-closed Icons department, and also collaborated with the Royal Collection on research and translation projects—where she additionally taught Russian.

Early in her curatorial journey, she completed an internship at the Victoria and Albert Museum and worked at Aidan Meller Gallery in Oxford—later known for the Ai-Da Robot Project, the first ultra-realistic female humanoid robot artist. In 2011, Irene became the London correspondent for The Art Newspaper Russia, serving as managing journalist for five years. During this period, she reported on major exhibitions, cultural events, and art market developments. After stepping away from this role in 2016, she expanded into radio broadcasting, hosting and producing programmes on arts and culture in London and abroad.

Since 2019, Irene has established herself as an independent curator, art manager, and lecturer. She curated Double Jeu, a landmark contemporary sculpture project at Les Jardins d’Étretat in Normandy, France, which received widespread coverage across European and British media. Between 2021 and 2023, she initiated and managed the exhibition Until the Word is Gone, an outdoor sculpture exhibition at the University of Oxford. She also co-curated The Suitcase, a politically charged project by activist artist Kostya Benkovich, featured in The Guardian, The Independent, FAD, and other outlets.

In late 2024, Irene was part of the curatorial team for Fragile, a critically acclaimed group exhibition exploring vulnerability, resilience, and material experimentation. The show, which ran from November to December 2024, came top of “11 London Exhibitions To See Before The Year Is Up” listed by Country & Town House magazine.

Alongside her curatorial work, Irene is the author of numerous articles on art history, examining the intersections between visual culture, memory, and identity. She taught art history at the University of Glasgow during the 2021–2022 and contributed to art scholarship as the co- editor of “Art and Power: The Russian Avant-Garde under Soviet Rule, 1917–1928” by Andrei Sarabyanov and Yulia Strizhkova, published by Unicorn Press in 2022—a critical study of avant-garde art in the early Soviet era.

Through her work as a curator, writer, and educator, she continues to commit to cross-disciplinary exchange and foster nuanced, historically informed dialogue within the contemporary art world.