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La Dasha Vita

Dasha Zhukova, the collector, philanthropist, and former society It Girl, has redefined herself by reimagining the role that art can play in working-class residential life. After a successful development in Philly, she just erected a new building in Harlem—with more to come in Phoenix and Nashville.

Dasha Zhukova
Zhukova is trying to bring art and design out of her rarefied world and into the everyday lives of her tenants. That means having an aesthetic vision that is also fiscally achievable. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Marion Maneker
May 27, 2025

Dasha Zhukova, the art collector and museum benefactor, has discovered the joys of linoleum. “It’s a great material,” she told me as we toured the latest project developed by her real estate company, Ray, on 126th Street and Fifth Avenue in Harlem. She attested to linoleum’s wide variety of colors and patterns, all of which were versatile and inexpensive. The material is not quite a metaphor for Ray, but her appreciation of it speaks to her focus on a larger goal. The company, in Zhukova’s own words, is meant to demonstrate that “having cultural and social impact with financial success is both viable and essential.”