Prem Krishnamurthy

Prem Krishnamurthy (b. 1977) is a designer, curator, and writer based between New York and Berlin, whose work explores how art and design can be “agents of transformation.” A graduate of Yale, he founded the influential design studio Project Projects (later Wkshps) and the experimental Chinatown gallery P!, and now directs the Department of Transformation.

Approach. Krishnamurthy works across exhibitions, publications, identity systems, writing, and workshops, blurring the lines between curating, designing, and artmaking — a polymorphic practice organized around ideas like “bumpiness,” or productive friction.

Selected. Artistic Director of FRONT International 2022: Cleveland Triennial; co-artistic director of the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial (2018); a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award (2015); and the books On Letters (2022) and Past Words (2024). His design archive entered the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and Bard CCS.

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Department of Transformation
P! archive
Wikipedia