Tamarind Arts Council is proud to present “Organizing Energy”, a solo exhibition by Prema Murthy. This exhibition has been highly anticipated since Murthy’s critically acclaimed solo in June 2007 at the PS1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center, New York, which was made possible by Tamarind Art and its patrons - Marguerite and Kent Charugundla. Apart from complex installation created with hand knotted yarn, series of paintings and limited edition prints (ranging in size from 11x 14 in. to 70 x 72in.) will be on display.
Murthy, an experienced programmer reveals the system of lines, generated by software code, merged with organic, hand-drawn lines in her new work. Her webs are complex arrangements representing a synthesis of the old and the new, the pre-modern and the computer age. Drawing profound connections between virtual numerical code and the physical aesthetic, “Organizing Energy”, seems to be the antithesis of “new media art”. Although the art work seems extremely low-tech, Murthy has based the compositions on digitally rendered shapes which she created with sophisticated software programs used to model realistic imagery for commercial films. Weaving in and out from the physical to digital, Murthy presents us with dichotomies that are relevant when considering contemporary India’s both particular and universal identities: the traditional and the hi-tech, the local and the global. Murthy’s work explores the grids that bridge the natural and man-made worlds, reflecting the nature of dynamic systems and their changing forms.
Murthy has profoundly exhibited her video, prints and installations in the US and abroad. Murthy is also the co-founder of the collective Fakeshop, which was included in the Whitney Biennial in 2000. This is Prema Murthy’s first solo exhibition at Tamarind Art Council.