Pushpamala N Bangalore (Bengaluru), Karnataka, India, b.1956
Pushpamala N (b. 1956, Bengaluru, India) is a pioneering Indian artist whose practice spans sculpture, photography, video, and performance. She completed her undergraduate studies at Bangalore University, followed by a BA and MA in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. While her early work sought to articulate an indigenous visual language rooted in ideas of “Indianness,” her practice later shifted decisively toward staged photography and video-performance.
Pushpamala is best known for her conceptual photo-performances in which she appears as the central subject, inhabiting a wide range of constructed personae. Drawing on cinematic, ethnographic, and mythological genres, her works employ masquerade, parody, and role-play to interrogate representation, authorship, and the politics of the image. Her sculptural training remains evident in the carefully composed, iconic, and materially grounded quality of her images.
Through the deliberate staging of both real and fictional histories, Pushpamala critically examines stereotypes, archetypes, and the narratives that shape national identity, gender roles, and cultural memory. By subjecting herself to layered political and social readings, she simultaneously reclaims agency and invites viewers to reflect on their own complicity in systems of looking.
She lives and works in Bengaluru, India.
Selected Artworks
Solo Exhibitions
2014
Avega: The Passion – Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore
2013
Avega: The Passion – Galerie Zurcher, Paris
2012
Avega: The Passion – Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
The Return Of The Phantom Lady (Sinful City) – Nature Morte, The Oberoi, Gurgaon
2010
Motherland (performance with Mamta Sagar) – Samuha Artist Collective, Bangalore
2009
Paris Autumn – Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
2008
Paris Autumn – Bose Pacia Gallery, New York
Nature Morte, New Delhi
Streetside Theater– Media Wave Festival, Gyor
2007
Streetside Theater – Bharat Rang Mahotsav, National School of Drama, New Delhi
– Salzburg Festival, Salzburg
2006
Pushpamala N – Espace Croise, Roubaix
Paris Autumn – Galerie Zurcher, Paris
Native Women Of South India: Manners And Customs – Bose Pacia, New York
2005
Native Women Of South India: Manners And Customs – Nature Morte, New Delhi
2004
Native Women Of South India: Manners And Customs – Sumukha Gallery, Bangalore
– Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
– Seagull Arts and Media Center, Kolkata
Indian Lady – Bose Pacia, New York
2003
Pushpamala N – Walsh Gallery, Chicago
The Anguished Heart – The British Council, New Delhi
2002
Golden Dreams – Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore
2001
Golden Dreams – Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
1998
Phantom Lady Or Kismet: A Photo Romance – Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
1994
Excavations – Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
1983
Pushpamala N – Venkatappa Art Gallery, Bangalore
Group Exhibitions
2017-18
SUB-PLOTS: Laughing in the Vernacular - curated by Meena Vari at NGMA, Mumbai
2015
In Order To Join – Museum Abteiberg-Goethe-Institut, Mumbai
Postdate: Photography And Inherited History In India – San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose
2014-15
Sparsha-Touching The Senses, Ritual And Contemporary Art – Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum
Foreign Exchange, Or The Stories You Wouldn’t Tell A Stranger – Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt
City Dwellers- Contemporary Art From India – Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
Postdate: Photography And Inherited History In India – San Jose Museum, San Jose
Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi
2014
Prospect.3 New Orleans – New Orleans
The Body In Indian Art – National Museum, New Delhi
Forms Of Activism – Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
2013
Bodies And Sexualities In Contemporary Art Across The Global South
– Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
2011
Paris Delhi Bombay - Center Pompidou, Paris
SAMTIDIGT – Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki
Dolls – Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore
Rob Dean Art, London
Against All Odds – Lalit Kala Akademy, New Delhi
Concurrent India – Tennis Palace, Helsinki Art Museum, Finland
2010
Changing Skin – The Fine Art Company, Mumbai
SAMTIDIGT – Kulturhuset, Stockholm
IP Detournement: Project Tania Bruguera, Voir and Revoir – Centre Pompidou, Paris
The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today – Saatchi Gallery, London
Where Three Dreams Cross – Whitechapel Gallery, London
Winterthur Fotomuseum, Switzerland
Cinema City – Majlis, Berlinale, Forum Expanded, Berlin
Canal Mediateca – Caixaforum, Barcelona
The Trickster – Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyennogi
Go See India – Gothenburg
Anxieties Of The Periphery – Gallery OED, Cochin
The New Order Beauty – Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi
Does Size Matter III? – Latitude 28, New Delhi
Looking Glass: The Existence Of Difference – Religare Arts Initiative, New Delhi
Spiral Jetty – Nature Morte, New Delhi
A Tribute To The Lens – M F Hussain Gallery, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi