Maxim Frumkin (Max Naum)

Critical Review of Maxim Frumkin (Max Naum)

by Anna Gvozdeva

Maxim Frumkin, also known as Max Naum, stands at the intersection of contemporary visual art and experimental media. His artistic practice—art video, photography, and mixed media—reflects a sustained inquiry into the instability of identity and the fractured nature of memory. What distinguishes Frumkin is his ability to merge highly conceptual frameworks with an affective immediacy, drawing viewers into works that are both intellectually rigorous and viscerally unsettling.

Maxim Frumkin | Yamashiro LIVE! | 2023

Frumkin’s art videos and installations employ repetition, fragmentation, and disruption, echoing the mechanisms of memory itself—unreliable, looping, and often ruptured. Unlike artists who rely solely on shock or spectacle, Frumkin creates subtle disorientations, compelling viewers to confront the porous boundaries between presence and absence, performance and authenticity. His references to Magritte, Nam June Paik, and Gregory Crewdson are not mere citations but rather points of departure: Magritte’s destabilization of image, Paik’s playful yet critical exploration of media, and Crewdson’s staged ambiguity are absorbed into a practice that refuses closure and certainty.

Maxim Frumkin | Yamashiro LIVE! | 2023

An art video such as Yamashiro LIVE! exemplifies his exploration of shifting personas and the performativity of identity. Here, Frumkin treats the self not as fixed but as something perpetually staged and revised. Similarly, Coin Celleil explores memory as a fragmented architecture, where the viewer becomes a participant in piecing together a past that never fully coheres. Both works highlight his capacity to make instability not a flaw but the very condition of contemporary subjectivity.

Maxim Frumkin | Coin Celleil

Frumkin’s recognition at the 2024 Pratt Institute’s School of Art Annual, where he was awarded Best Art Video, confirms the critical relevance of his practice. Yet beyond accolades, his art videos resonates because it embraces contradiction rather than resolution. In a cultural moment where clarity and coherence are often demanded, Frumkin insists on ambiguity, opening a space where reflection lingers and meaning remains fluid. His art is not an answer but an invitation: to dwell in uncertainty, to question the images we consume, and to reconsider how memory and identity are constructed and dissolved.