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Breaking Frames: Twenty-Five Years of Independent Art in and from Russia is the first English-language survey of independent contemporary Russian art. It tells the dramatic stories of freedom-seeking artists that emerged between 2000 and 2025. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian artists first sought to engage with the modern art traditions from which they had long been isolated. Over the following decades, they developed an independent and self-confident artistic language. Yet this flourishing scene was shattered by a new era of censorship and repression. Since 2022, many artists have been forced into exile, while others continue to create under increasingly hostile conditions. Organized around themes rather than chronology, the book introduces Russia's leading contemporary artists while tracing the rise, transformation, and uncertain future of the country's independent art scene.
“Over the course of nearly two decades, Simon Mraz has not only acquired a profound knowledge of independent and critical artists from Russia, but has also consistently and actively supported them. It is essential that those artists who have largely been deprived of their freedom be given a voice. This publication makes a significant contribution to that goal.”
—Ramesch Daha, President of Secession
“Independent art has long flourished in Russia—largely unseen by the outside world. Simon Mraz changed that. Having lived in Russia from 2009 to 2021, Mraz immersed himself in a vibrant, defiant creative underground—meeting artists, building relationships, and organizing exhibitions that gave a stage to artists who otherwise would not have had the chance to present their work. Rarely has another person outside Russia witnessed this world as closely, or understands it as deeply, as he does. In this landmark work, Mraz opens the doors to a scene that has long operated beyond the reach of international attention, offering an unparalleled insider’s account of twenty-five years of independent Russian art. His ambition to share this knowledge with the world could not be more timely—or more important.”
—Stella Rollig, General Director, Belvedere Museum, Vienna
“This is the story of a generation of artists who were convinced that they are able to give Russia a new cultural identity by means of art. The political system almost crushed them, but their work goes on and this book is a very important witness to that.”
—Helga Rabl-Stadler, longtime president of the Salzburg festival from 1995 to 2021, and cofounder of the ASoP artist Solidarity program