Prabhavathi Meppayil

Meppayil’s is an artisanal practice executed in a contemporary South Asian context, in dialogue with Western modernism from the 1950s and ‘60s -Frieze

Indian artist Prabhavathi Meppayil (born 1965) makes wall-mounted panels and sculptural installations containing subtle gestures that heighten the inherent qualities of her materials and tools. The artist’s integration of craft-based labor and process-based art positions her work in unique dialogue with a complex history of material and artistic production, invoking artisanal legacies, affinities with Indian culture, and Minimalist and Postminimalist concepts. This book explores the past six years of Meppayil’s output and echoes the subtle qualities of her work through its considered typography and design. Semitransparent and colored pages are inserted between sections to define the different exhibitions but also as another layer of materiality and counterpoise to the works. The layout of the inside pages balances the works and texts within a modernist grid, using the proportions of the page to create harmony and breathing room around the works.