Prem Krishnamurthy

Prem Krishnamurthy is a designer, writer, curator, and teacher whose work explores how artmaking shapes belief, behavior, and collective imagination. Spanning exhibitions, publications, pedagogy, performance, and civic-scale collaborations, his practice treats creativity and collaboration as tools for transforming individuals, communities, and institutions.

He received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Communications Design in 2015 and KW Institute for Contemporary Art’s “A Year With” fellowship in 2018–19. In 2019, his professional papers were acquired by Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies. He served as artistic director of FRONT International 2022: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art (2022). His books include P!DF (O-R-G, 2017–2020). On Letters (Domain Books, 2022), and Past Words (König, 2024), an anthology of his writing and experimental curatorial projects.

In 2022, Prem founded Department of Transformation, an artist-organized group that prototypes new forms of togetherness, learning, and collective healing, which has developed participatory programs and exhibitions with institutions including Brooklyn Public Library, Centre Pompidou, The Clemente, EYEBEAM, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Swiss Institute, Terra Foundation for American Art, and others.

Previously, he founded the design studios Wkshps (2018–) and Project Projects (2004–2017), as well as the critically-acclaimed exhibition space P! (2012–2017) in New York.