Maria Smolyaninova. Far

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the School of Contemporary Art Free Workshops present Far, an exhibition by Maria Smolyaninova that offers a contemporary perspective on landscape and its place with the system of visual experience.

The history of landscape in art went a long way from an idealized image of nature to creating a space for reflection. In her works, Maria Smolyaninova explores this transformation, framing the landscape as a dialogue between a person and a place. She shortens the distance between the observer and the observed, revealing how attentive contemplation can alter one’s perception of the world.

The project centres around etchings created using printmaking techniques of open bite etching, aquatint, and drypoint. For Smolyaninova, the printmaking process itself becomes a metaphor for interacting with nature: it takes time, patience, and sensitivity to the material. She works slowly, observing how a space reveals itself through prolonged observation, and how the graphic surface gradually acquires its own voice. Every work is born from an extended conversation with both visual and internal landscapes. This informs a distinct rhythm of viewing the exhibition, as the audience is invited to join the artist in feeling the flow of time, the layers of impressions, and the profound connection between humanity and nature.

The Far project approaches landscape not as a genre, but as a way of thinking. Here, nature is not a backdrop, but an interlocutor that teaches us to see the infinite in the simple, and the new in the familiar.

Maria Smolyaninova (b. 1989, Moscow) is a contemporary landscape artist whose work explores the poetic essence of the world through printmaking. In her art, she engages with the theme of genius loci, seeking to convey not external forms, but the internal states of a space, its spiritual fullness and its dialogue with an observer. Etching is central to her artistic practice, a medium that requires slowness, concentration and deep immersion.

Smolyaninova graduated from the Surikov Moscow State Academic Art Institute and completed an internship at the Creative Graphic Workshops of the Russian Academy of Arts (2014-2017). In 2023, she graduated from the MMOMA School of Contemporary Art Free Workshops. A member of the Moscow Union of Artists (since 2013), and the Russian Union of Artists (since 2017), she was awarded the Silver Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts (2018).

Maria is a laureate of numerous prestigious Russian and international competitions, including the 4th Kazan International Print Graphics Biennale ‘Horseman’ (2017, winner); the 3rd International Triennial of Modern Graphics, Novosibirsk (2021, winner); the 2nd International Print Graphics Biennale ‘Kubachinskaya Tower’, Dagestan (2022, winner). Maria has participated exhibitions since 2008. Her works are part of museum collections in Russia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as private collections internationally.

The School of Contemporary Art Free Workshops is an educational platform of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art for young artists and curators. Founded in 1992 by a group of artists and art historians, including Alexander Ponomarev, Vladimir Kupriyanov, Vladimir Nasedkin, and Moscow State University professors Vera Dazhina and Valery Turchin, the School offers access to workshops lead by prominent speakers, cultural leaders, philosophers, and theorists of contemporary art. Through its educational programme, young artists and curators immerse themselves in the art world by participating in workshops, group exhibitions and festivals. As part of MMOMA, the Free Workshops School offers a unique opportunity to study theoretical and practical aspects of contemporary art from within its epicentre. At every stage of their journey, artists receive institutional support and are encouraged to take part in group exhibitions (such as the annual exhibitions of young art, group projects by young curators) and to hold solo exhibitions (through MMOMA Young Art Support Programme).