Artist Statement
Department of Transformation (DT) is an artist-organized group that mobilizes the power of art and design to prototype new formats and methods for collaborative learning. What tools are needed for individual, collective, and structural transformation? How can the notion of the artist become more porous and interdependent? Where can we gather together to change and grow? Engaging with such questions, DT invites artists, thinkers, therapists, and others to explore alternative pathways for art that is responsive to our trying times. DT was founded by designer, author, and educator Prem Krishnamurthy and takes shape through workshops, events, publications, and community-based activities (+ karaoke!) around the world.
“With Distance: Conversation with Kristie La”, as part of *Céline Condorelli: Epilogue*, 2017. P!, New York, US. Curator: Prem Krishnamurthy. Photo: Sebastian Bach
Bio
Prem Krishnamurthy (b. 1977) is a designer, author, and educator. His multifaceted work explores the role of art as an agent of transformation at an individual, collective, and structural level. This manifests itself in books, exhibitions, gatherings, images, performances, publications, systems, talks, texts, and workshops. He received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Communications Design in 2015 and KW Institute for Contemporary Art’s “A Year With…” residency fellowship in 2018. His professional papers were acquired by Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies in 2019. From 2017–2021, his experimental electronic book *P!DF* was published by O-R-G. In 2022, Domain Books published his book-length epistolary essay, *On Letters*. He currently directs Wkshps, a multidisciplinary design studio, and organizes Department of Transformation, an itinerant workshop that practices collaborative tools for social change. In addition to leading projects with artists, cultural institutions, and nonprofit organizations across the world, he has curated several large-scale exhibitions. These include *Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows*, the 2022 edition of FRONT International, Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art; *Our Silver City, 2094* at Nottingham Contemporary; and *Ministry of Graphic Design* in Sharjah, UAE. Previously, Prem founded the design studio Project Projects and the exhibition space P! in New York
premkrishnamurthy.com