Prema Murthy (born 1969 in Seattle, WA) is an American, multi-disciplinary artist based in New York. Employing aesthetics, gesture, geometry and algorithmic processes, Murthy's work explores the boundaries between embodiment and abstraction, while engaging in issues of culture and politics. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at MoMA PS1, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Reina Sofia Museum, the Generali Foundation in Vienna, and the India Habitat Center-New Delhi.
Education Murthy received a BA in Art History and Women's Studies from the University of Texas, Austin and MFA from Goldsmiths College, London.
Career Murthy's early digital art works from the 1990s - such as Bindigirl and Mythic Hybrid - are considered pioneering examples of internet art from a feminist perspective.Rachel Greene, Internet Art (World of Art) (Thames & Hudson, 2004), pp. 212-14; Kelly Dennis, "Gendered Ghosts in the Globalized Machine: Coco Fusco and Prema Murthy," Paradoxa: International Feminist Art Journal, Vol. 23 (2009): pp. 79-86. These works explored the intersections of gender, race, and technology, while also utilizing the then-emerging tools of streaming media as a platform for performance art."Bindigirl - Interview with Prema Murthy," Rhizome.org (2 June 1999); González, Jennifer. "Morphologies: Race as a Digital Technology," in Re:Skin, ed. Mary Flanagan and Austin Booth (MIT Press, 2009), pp. 346-48; Andrea Grobler and Ingrid Stevens, "Pornography, Erotica, Cyberspace and the Work of Two Female Artists," South African Journal of Art History vol. 25 (2010): pp. 17-28. These works contributed to the cyberfeminist art movement, while also drawing inspiration from postcolonial studies and feminist science fiction.Josephine Bosma, "Interview: Prema Murthy," Old Boys Network Reading Room (January 2001); Christopher L. McGahan, "Re-Posing Porn and the Racialized Subject in Cyberculture: Prema Murthy's Bindigirl, Cyberfeminism, and the Culturalist Politics of Orientalized Pornography on the Internet," Racing Cyberculture: Minoritarian Art and Cultural Politics on the Internet (Routledge, 2013), pp. 123-161. See also Murthy's essay "Ito Ay Panaginip Sa Ibang Pangungusap" (This is a Dream Not of a Common Language) in Cyberfeminism: Next Protocols, edited by Claudia Reiche and Verena Kuni (Autonomedia, 2004). In 2015 Murthy's work Bindigirl was included in the group retrospective "Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s".Come As You Are: Art of the 1990s, Montclair Art Museum.
In the 1990s Murthy also co-founded Fakeshop, an art collective that used early video conferencing technologies, interactive video and music software, and digital animation to create large scale performative installations.Catherine Bernard, "Bodies and Digital Utopia," Art Journal 59.4 (2000): 26-31; Jay David Bolter and Diane Gromala, Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency (MIT Press, 2005), pp. 96ff.; Bosma, "Interview: Prema Murthy." Fakeshop presented its work at venues such as Ars Electronica and SIGGRAPH, and was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial, the first major American museum to include Internet art as a special category in its exhibition.Ars Electronica 1999; SIGGRAPH 2000; Whitney Biennial Art Port. See also "Now Anyone Can Be in the Whitney Biennial", The New York Times (23 March 2000).
Murthy's recent work includes the use of 3D modeling tools to create large scale drawings, digital prints, and installation. These works make reference to the art of Futurism, Minimalism, and the Baroque.Helena Reckitt, "From Bindi Girls to Space Invaders: Prema Murthy," ArtAsiaPacific, vol. 39 (2004): 34-35. Her 2008 solo exhibit "Fuzzy Logic" at MoMA PS1 included a number of abstract, wireframe drawings as well as a room-sized installation of black yarn produced with the aid of 3D software.Fuzzy Logic exhibit, MoMA PS1. In 2010 Murthy used these techniques for her animated short "Monster," produced in collaboration with singer/songwriter Miho Hatori.Saltworks Gallery.
She has taught Digital Art at City College (CUNY) and Sarah Lawrence College, NY.
See also Cyberfeminism Feminist art Internet art New media art Performance art
References
External links Prema Murthy site Fuzzy Logic exhibit, MoMA PS1