Zoya Frolova and Janis Jakobsons "POWER¿" at Mriya Gallery

Photo by Dinara Khariova / @khairovaphoto

By KEN KRANTZ September 29th, 2026 at 8:02pm EST

Zoya Frolova is known for showcasing the indomitable human spirit through play. She takes this paradigm a step further in POWER¿ at Mriya Gallery in New York City's Tribeca neighborhood. The exhibition is the second chapter of Edge of Illusions, an impactful collaboration coordinated by the international cultural initiative Tukku Magi (a project co-founded by Frolova and Janis Jakobsons), Rukh Art Hub, and Mriya Gallery. 

"The entire scope of human activity may be seen as composed of various games: political, military, economic, religious, and erotic,” Frolova observes. “For me, painting is the single most enrapturing, intriguing and abstract."

POWER¿ unfolds across three distinct spatial movements: a gallery of haunting red-and-white figurative canvases, a commanding floor installation, and a series of gilded objects.

Frolova’s visual language is both physically and conceptually layered. Through a careful process of applying, scraping, varnishing, and dry-brushing, she builds dense, textured surfaces where form simultaneously emerges and recedes. A deliberate atmospheric haze obscures precise details, creating a provocative friction with her masterful figurative work. Her canvases do more than depict a portrait. As Frolova notes, “You can guess the figure.” 

 Photo by Dinara Khariova / @khairovaphoto 

The gallery's staging serves as a narrative engine. For example, visual motifs recalling the opulent excess of Marie Antoinette in the Red Queen series frame Queen Elizabeth II in White Queen III, constructing a poignant, cross-temporal reflection on the visual machinery of opulent power.

The floor installation, a large, dark wreath of metal shavings, extends the exhibition throughout the architecture of the gallery.  Evolving from an oversized tic-tac-toe game in the previous installment of Edge of Illusions, this dark, wreath-like circle brings the board to its final, decisive move.

Photo by Dinara Khariova / @khairovaphoto

In the final section, Janis Jakobsons’ gilded sculptures from his Awards series provide a stark counterpoint, capturing a flashy, ostentatious aesthetic of dominance. Jakobsons crafts the hollow, glittering trophies that actors burn down empires to claim. Complementing the historical masks of authority and the floor installation that lays bare its abrasive consequences, the Awards mimic the psychological carrot driving the game itself.

In POWER¿, by reducing statecraft, ego, and historical clout to a series of tactical moves and shiny relics, the exhibition lays bare the fragile, performative engine humming away underneath loci of power.

Photo by Dinara Khariova / @khairovaphoto