The artist's works include the "Broken Pieces" (1989 - 1992) and "Self Portraits without a Mirror" (1993 - 1996) series. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, his ties to artists in Russia frayed. His work was more influenced by Duchamp and Beuys in this period. In the mid-1990s, his wife Lida Blinova died of cancer. Khalfin's first performance art piece, "Autumnal Gestures of Wrath", was staged in 1996; he chopped "cabbage heads stationed on tall podiums that were supposed to imitate sculpture plinths."