Shilpa Gupta

Born 1976, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

It’s possible these days to buy almost anything over the internet – but how about your own personalised religious blessing? That’s what web artist Shilpa Gupta made possible in her work blessed-bandwidth.net, characteristically using wit and irony to raise important questions about consumerism, spirituality and modern life. Gupta uses cutting-edge internet technology to explore fundamental human issues that affect all of us: the environment, globalisation, war, religion, human rights. Although she deals with serious issues, though, Gupta has a light touch; her work is always user-friendly and often humorous. For International 06, Gupta will look at the new possibilities opened up by media technology to two historical port cities: Liverpool and Mumbai.

Solo Presentations

2006 Recent Works, Bose Pacia Gallery, New York, USA

2005 Recent Works, Provisions Library, Resource Center for Activism and Arts, Washington DC, USA

2004 Your Kidney Supermarket, Oxford Bookstore, Mumbai, India

2003 Blessed Bandwidth.net, net art commission from Tate Online, London, UK
Launch at Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India

2002 Sentiment Express, Loftus Lloyd Café, Mercer Union and SAVAC, Toronto, Canada

2001 Moving Image Center, Auckland, New Zealand
Gallery 4A, Sydney, Australia
Galerie de l’Ecole Supérieure d’Art d’Aix en Provence, France
Artspace, Sydney, Australia

Selected Participation 

2006 Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Curated by Charles Merewether
IX Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba
Moving Spirits, Werkleitz project, Franckesche Stiftungen, Halle, Germany

2005 Wayward Economy, Main Trend Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Musuem, Fukuoka City, Japan
Crossovers & Rewrites: Borders over Asia, Museum of Contemporary Art, World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil

2004 The 10 Commandments, Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany. Curated by Klaus Biesenbach
Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Crossing Currents: Video Art and Cultural Identity, Lalit Kala Akademi Galleries, New Delhi, India

2003 Body.City, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
OK. Video, Indonesian National Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia
Video Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil

2002 Upstream, Hoorn and Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Self, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia

2001 Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, Tate Modern, London, UK

2000 Ideas and Images, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India
Aar-Paar, public art exchange project between India and Pakistan

Selected Awards

Transmediale 2004 Award, Berlin

Sanskriti Prathisthan Award, New Delhi

International Artist of the Year, South Asian Visual Artists’ Collective, Canada

Further Reading

‘Global Crossings Prize – Runner Up’, Leonardo Electronic Almanac Magazine, MIT Press, 2005

Geeta Kapur, Sub Terrain: Artists Dig the Contemporary, Body.City, September 2003

Johan Pijnappel, ‘Please Dispose After Use’, Arts Asia Pacific, 35 (2002)

Heidi Reitmaier, ‘God, Prayer and Politics: The Work of Shilpa Gupta’, Tate Online, November 2003

Shilpa Gupta, BP Contemporary Art in India Series, Volume 29, New York: Bose Pacia, 2006

Events relating to this artist