Prabhavathi Meppayil

Prabhavathi Meppayil (1965, born and based in Bangalore, India) employs an abstract visual language to create sculptures, installations and drawings that invoke artisanal legacies and Modernist influences. Drawing from her familial heritage of goldsmithing and the Minimalist approach of using only the most essential elements, she repurposes traditional tools and techniques to investigate process, gesture and form, as well as qualities inherent to her materials.

A sense of repetition, rhythm and visual simplicity characterises Meppayil’s works, which are meticulously rendered by hand using objects from the trade. A thinnam—traditionally used to create ornamental patterns on bangles in South Asia—is frequently used by Meppayil to incise minute geometric motifs onto white gesso panels. Applied with a careful, repeated tapping motion, the percussive impressions evoke the soundscape of goldsmithing and the passage of time. The artist also often incorporates gold or copper wires, embedding them onto her panels before sanding the surface down. This exposes the delicate and precise metallic lines that will gradually change in colour due to oxidation. These variations in structure and appearance prompt viewers to take a closer and longer look as different visual subtleties emerge, revealing a human touch.

Meppayil obtained her BA from Bangalore University in 1986 and her Diploma of Fine Arts from Ken School of Art, Bangalore in 1992. Her work is held in numerous collections including the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum, Ahmedabad; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and the Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka.

Notable exhibitions include Other Worlds Than This (2022), Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor; Fault Lines (2020), Philadelphia Museum of Art; Scripting Time Memory Ecology (2020), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi; Everything We Do Is Music (2018), Pasquart Kunsthaus Centre d’art, Biel; Nine Seventeen (2014), American Academy in Rome; and Phantoms of Asia (2012), Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including We Do Not Dream Alone (2021), 1st Asia Society Triennial, New York; Seismic Movements (2020), 5th Dhaka Art Summit; Superposition (2018), 21st Biennale of Sydney; Islands, Constellations & Galapagos (2017), 8th Yokohama Triennale; Forming in the Pupil of an Eye (2016), 3rd Kochi-Muziris Biennale; 3rd Dhaka Art Summit (2016); The Encyclopedic Palace (2012), 55th Venice Biennale; and Shadow Lines (2011), 11th Biennale Jogja, Yogyakarta.

Meppayil had her residency at the STPI Workshop in 2019.