Nadya Tolokonnikova: I Wasn’t Invited so I Broke the Door
June 28–July 20, 2025. Nadya Tolokonnikova’s art is her weapon against tyranny. Born in Siberia in 1989, Tolokonnikova left Moscow at 16 to study philosophy. As Russian society became increasingly oppressive, Tolokonnikova became a multimedia conceptual artist and founded the feminist activist collective Pussy Riot.
Pussy Riot used microphones, electric guitars, and amplifiers they cobbled together from car speakers; they shouted and danced to shine a light on the Russian government’s increasing human rights violations.
Russian police have arrested Nadya Tolokonnikova more than 70 times for her anti-authoritarian art activism, and in 2012 imprisoned her for 21 months in a Siberian penal colony. Rather than give up, Tolokonnikova fights back with truth and art.
Turner Carroll is pleased to present Tolokonnikova’s internationally touring exhibition of works, which premiered at the OK Linz Museum and at LA MoCA, making them available for collectors. Join us for the opening and a presentation by Nadya Tolokonnikova on June 28, 2025.
Exhibition Essay
Nadya Tolokonnikova is one of the most impactful voices in the contemporary art world. Just a few days ago, she concluded a durational performance, almost clairvoyantly, titled Police State, at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. There, Tolokonnikova recreated the Russian prison cell in which she spent 21 months, inhabiting it by her own volition. It was her way of reclaiming what had been inflicted upon her by the Russian government as her own art. The exhibition was covered by major publications including The New York Times, Art Newspaper, Artnews, Financial Times, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Hyperallergic, and numerous others.
Art historians often debate whether art reflects society or changes it. In Tolokonnikova’s case, her art does both. She empowers herself and all of us by demonstrating that while we must accurately perceive painful realities, we can also transform them into powerful fuel for social change.
Tolokonnikova was born in Siberia in 1989, just when Russia began to open up. There was so much hope for the future, but she quickly witnessed darkness descend with the rise of authoritarian rule. Because of this. she formed the first feminist activist art collective (Pussy Riot) in Russia. Upon her release, she was invited to speak before the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament, named a Time Magazine Person of the Year, was placed on Russia’s Most Wanted List.
Though Tolokonnikova is geographically anonymous due to safety concerns, she exhibits her work globally. Her works are shown and collected by major museums like the Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Neue Gallery in Berlin, Austria’s OK Linz Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Zimmerli Museum, Ackland Museum of Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and numerous others.
After the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the 2024 election, Tolokonnikova responded with an important series she titles Dark Matter, which debuted Tolokonnikova’s first solo European museum exhibition at OK Linz Museum in Austria before traveling to Turner Carroll. The black on black artworks, with glimmers of gold leaf and red, feature imagery from photographs Tolokonnikova took in Russia. They illustrate her sense that while we are entering a New Dark Age, there are glimmers of hope for a better future if we act intelligently.
This exhibition also includes drawings by other prisoners, which Nadya curated and displayed in her Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art prison cell. The now historic “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Russia” banner that Pussy Riot carried at the recent Los Angeles protest, is exhibited here for the first time as well.
Turner Carroll is proud to present these important historic works by one of our century’s most impactful artists.
