Prabhavathi Meppayil

Prabhavathi Meppayil, born in 1965 in Bangalore, is an Indian abstract artist renowned for her modernist and minimalist paintings and installation art.

Prabhavathi Meppayil's Art Style

Prabhavathi Meppayil's art is characterized by a blend of Minimalist and Postminimalist concepts with traditional Indian craftsmanship. She utilizes materials such as gold and copper wires, embedding them onto the surface of white gesso panels to create precise lines. Additionally, she employs a thinnam, a traditional goldsmithing tool, to incise patterns into metal, producing intricate patterned abstractions.

Meppayil emphasizes process and gesture in her work, focusing on the inherent qualities of her materials. Meppayil’s integration of craft-based labor and process-oriented art places her work in a unique dialogue with the complex history of material and artistic production.

Exhibitions of Meppayil's Works

Prabhavathi Meppayil's artwork is held in prestigious public collections, including the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, the François Pinault Collection in Venice, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Samdani Art Foundation in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Her solo exhibitions include "Prabhavathi Meppayil" at Pace Gallery in New York (2022), "Prabhavathi Meppayil: Recent Works" at Pace Gallery in London (2019), "b/seven eighths" at Esther Schipper in Berlin (2018), "Galleryske" at Vasant Kunj in New Delhi (2017), and many more. 

Additionally, Meppayil's works have beem featured in numerous group exhibitions, including "Other Worlds Than This" at Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York (2022)," Little Things: Parts I & II" at Pace Gallery in Geneva (2021), "Crafting Geometry: Abstract Art from South and West Asia" at Sotheby’s in New York (2020), "Everything We Do Is Music" at Drawing Room in London (2017), among others.