Karthik Pandian

Karthik Pandian is an Indian cinematographer based in Los Angeles, USA. He was born in LA and pursued Bachelor of Arts in Art Semiontics and Comparative Literature from Brown University. Later he pursed MFA from Art Centre College of Design. He is now a faculty at Harvard University in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies. He specializes in film, performance, sculpture and public interventions. He has held many solo exhibitions at grand locations like Betonsalon in Paris, Whitney Museum in American Art in New York Click to look into! >> Read More... , Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis, and many more.

Besides, his work has been featured in many top exhibitions around the world such as Okwui Enwezor’s La Triennale: Intense Proximity at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015 in at Whitechapel Gallery in London, and LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum. His project Atlas Unlimited was presented solo at 80 Washington Square East Gallery in New York City in 2019 and it also received a commission from Triple Canopy in 2021. The work was a collaboration with famous choreographers Andros Zins-Browne and sculptor Zakaria Almoutlak and also including many others. It was focused on the choreography and development of vocals, audio recording of songs from the libretto to preserve the artwork which was performance-based artwork. He describes his work as “concerned in particular with the way in which history lurks in matter.” His notable work ‘Unearth’ in 2011 focuses on the culture of Native American Cahokia and its monuments. He received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 2011.

He is an expert in using sculptures, moving images, and performances to capture present mythologies while studying the fragmentary and futuristics of the past. His feature film Lucid Decapitation was supported by the Creative Capital Award in 2022 and public performances in St. Paul. He was invited to several talks and lectures, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and ArtCenter College of Design in 2020; Georgetown University, NYU Steinhardt Department of Art, and Ox-Bow School of Arts in 2019; Columbia University School of Arts, Tufts SMFA, University of Oregon, and Tufts University Art Gallery in 2018; and many more. He has published writings such as ‘The Form-Giver: A Picasso Symposium’ in 2015, ‘Late Culture in American Bottom’ in 2010, ‘Berghain Boogie-Woogie’ in 2009, etc. His awards and grants include Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in 2018, Provostial Fund for Arts and Humanities in 2017, Curricular Innovation Grant in 2014, Durfee Foundation Artists’ Resource for Completion grant in 2010.