Poulomi Basu
Overview
Poulomi Basu (1983, Kolkata, India) is an accomplished transmedia artist, photographer, and dedicated activist whose practice has garnered widespread recognition utilizing her art as a powerful method for social change. Her work explores the relationship between politics of bodies and systems of power. She has dedicated her life to advocating for women's rights, particularly in the Global South but impacting worldwide. Basu's work is informed by her own patriarchal upbringing in Kolkata, India, where both her mother and grandmother were child brides and young widows.
Basu partnered with the charity WaterAid to create this series to launch a campaign which raised over £5 million for climate, clean water and educational initiatives in India and Nepal. Her photobook, Centralia, won the 2020 Rencontres d'Arles Discovery Award, a National Geographic Explorer 2020 Award, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Deutsche Borse Foundation Photography Prize. In 2017, her groundbreaking work, "Blood Speaks”, was selected for the Sundance New Frontiers Lab Fellowship, and in 2019, it was presented at SXSW. She is represented by TJ Boulting Gallery, London and Assembly, Houston. Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), Museum of Modern Art Library - Special Collections (USA), Harvard Art Museums (USA), Autograph ABP (UK), Martin Parr Foundation (UK), Rencontres d'Arles (France). She is the winner of Infinity Award for Contemporary Photography and New Media, International Centre of Photography Museum, USA 2023. She has an upcoming solo exhibition: Maya: The Birth of a Superhero, at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Works
Press
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The 2024 Cannes Film Festival Immersed Audiences in Art
A selection of films on artists and immersive VR experiences all reinforced the ability of art to emerge from and resonate with the viewer on deeply felt levels.Ela Bittencourt, Hyperallergic, June 13, 2024 -
‘This is just the beginning, revolutions take time’: the artists capturing women’s resistance
South London Gallery is showcasing female artists who challenge traditional protest photographyNylah Salam, hyphen., May 16, 2024 -
Poulomi Basu: Fireflies/Maya review: powerful visions from mother-and-daughter survivors of male violence
The artist who created a menstruating superhero has now made a deeply personal body of work, responding to the global epidemic of domestic violenceCharlotte Jansen, The Guardian, October 2, 2023 -
Prestigious photo prize honors docu-fiction on India’s hidden war
Matthew Ponsford,, CNN, June 28, 2021 -
Poulomi Basu’s Dystopian Photographs of India’s Indigenous Tribes
As her ten-year project Centralia goes on display as part of The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2021, the Calcutta-born, London-based artist reveals the powerful story behind its conceptionDaisy Woodward, AnOther, June 24, 2021
Art Fairs