Tara Kelton is an Indian-American artist living in Bangalore. Tara investigates forms of drawing, and the relationship between human and machine, in light of new technology and tools of image production. Experiments and collaborations with digital labour, and processes typically involving relinquishing aesthetic control over the outcome, form an important part of her work. More recently her practice has focused on the diminishing role of the human in contemporary society (replaced by automation, AI and digital mediation) and the remote control of labour by western bodies and corporations.
Tara is co-editor of the publishing series Silicon Plateau, an art project and publishing series that explores the intersection of technology, culture and society in Bangalore.
Tara is co-editor of the publishing series Silicon Plateau, an art project and publishing series that explores the intersection of technology, culture and society in Bangalore.
TEXTS
Staring at Sentience: Labor and Loneliness in AI by Skye Arundhati Thomas
Dissolving Margins (Algorithmic Identities) by Melanie Pocock
On drawing virtual objects, and rendering dreams by Marialaura Ghidini
Where does my data body live? by Richa Kaul Padte
Resisting the Algorithm by Anisha Baid
Education
MFA Yale University School of Art
BFA Parsons School of Design
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Privacy Techtonics, Otoka, Nottingham, England
2022 Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, India
2022 Proprioception.in
2021 Content, Interim, Mumbai, India
2020 Still Life, Portrait, Landscape, Dilalica, Barcelona, Spain
2020 Algo-portrait, Mumbai Art Room, Mumbai, India
2018 Unscripted Interfaces, GallerySKE, Bangalore, India
2017 Variety, GallerySKE, Delhi, India
2016 (with Masood Kamandy), Adjunct Positions, Los Angeles, USA
2016 Still Life with a Curtain, GallerySKE, Bangalore, India
2015 interior.lib (Fly-through), GallerySKE, Delhi, India
2014 Traveling without Moving, GallerySKE, Bangalore, India
2013 Karizma (Outsourced: Un-Publish), Or-bits.com / Banner Repeater, London, UK
2010 Unsharp Mask, Volte, Mumbai, India
Group Exhibitions
2023 Jinan International Biennale, Jinan, China
2023 Unproductive Solutions, www.unproductivesolutions.com
2022 Chosen, www.distant.gallery
2021 Mind Over Matter, Museum Technische Sammlungen, Dresden, Germany
2020 Games of Chance, Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, Goa, India
2019 Booth Sketch, GallerySKE, Bangalore
2018 Dissolving Margins, ICA, Singapore
2017 Your Content is Here, The Wrong - New Digital Art Biennale (online)
2017 Double Road, Kunstpavillon im Alten Botanischen Garten, Munich, Germany
2017 Common Ground #3, Kleine Humbolt Galerie, Berlin, Germany
2017 #exstrange, curated by Marialaura Ghidini and Rebekah Modrak, eBay.com
2017 FAR Bazaar, Cerritos College, Norwalk, CA, USA
2016 Against Nature, OED Gallery, Kochi, India
2016 The New Art Fest, Lisbon, Portugal
2016 Still Life with a Curtain, GallerySKE, Bangalore, India
2016 Art Marathon, Venkatappa Art Gallery, Bangalore, India
2016 Final Review, G159, Bangalore, India
2016 New Sensorium, curated by Yuko Hasegawa, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
2015 Eden Festival, Tote, Mumbai, India
2015 Common Ground #2, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, India
2015 Where the Heart Is, Home Sweet Home, Bangalore, India
2015 Seeing the Elephant, Bakalar & Paine Galleries, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, USA
2015 Boob Tube Tuesday: DIGITAL HIGH, curated by Sunita Prasad, New York, USA
2014 Kochi Muziris Biennale, curated by Jitish Kallat, Kochi, India
2014 The C(h)roma Show, Croma, Bangalore, India
2014 The Last Brucennial, New York, NY
2014 Experiments with Truth and Time, Museum of Conflict, Ahmedabad, India
2013 Artshop! Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT
2013 5 Years of CIS, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India
2013 OTLO, Bhavishyavani Backyard, Mumbai, India
2013 5 Projects, GallerySKE, Bangalore, India
2012 Her Stories, Queens Museum of Art, NY
2012 PDF Release & Party, CAGE, Brooklyn, NY
2012 Loss for Words, Art Musings, Mumbai, India
2011 Status!Status!Status!, Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Slipstreams, Contemporary Artistic Practice and the Shaping of Time, Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT 2011 Vox VII, juried by Melissa Ho and Hennessy Youngman, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
2011 Voxelvision 1.0, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
2009 Long live the Gallery, Volte, Mumbai, India
2009 Lux Et Veritas, New Jerseyy, Basel, Switzerland & Tbilisi 6, Tbilisi, Georgia
2009 Lux Et Veritas, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2008 MFA Choice, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
Press
2023 Skye Arundhati Thomas. “Staring at Sentience: Labor and Loneliness in AI”. Hyundai Art Lab. August 26
2021 Anisha Baid. “Resisting the Algorithm: Tara Kelton’s Guided Tour”. ASAP Art. June 19
2021 Anisha Baid. “Imaging the Black Box: Tara Kelton’s Portraits of Uber as Imagined by Its Drivers”. ASAP Art. June 18
2020 Jones John. “Tara Kelton on big data, surveillance and human agency in the age of Instagram”. STIR World. July 29
2020 Kamayani Sharma. “Critic’s Pick”. Art Forum. February
2020 Richa Kaul Padte. “Where does my data body live?” First Post. February
2020 Kabir Jhala. “Three to See”. Art Newspaper. Jan 10
2019 Christina J Chua. “Positive Externalities and Third World Problems”. SO-FAR. Sep 25
2019 Christina J. Chua. “Dissolving Margins, Defying Gravity”. SO-FAR. Jan 9
2018 Skye Arundhati Thomas. “Critic’s Pick”. Art Forum. November
2017 Arts Illustrated. “Funny Lines”. Volume 2, issue 5. June
2017 Indian Express, “All of us, Virtually”. May 31
2015 Daily India Mail. “Kochi Muziris Biennale: Whorled Explorations”. Jan 28
2014 Caravan Magazine Showcase. May 1
2014 Maegan Dobson. “Screenshot”. Time Out Bangalore. April 11
2013 Pratima Chabbi. “Trope movements”. Time Out Bangalore. March 29
2012 Laura Barlow. “Slipstreams” Art Papers. March/April
2012 Tasneem Balapurwala. “Archiving history, pieces at a time” Asian Age. Jan 16
2012 Zaira Arslan. “When Memory Fades” Indian Express. Jan 15
2011 IDPure, The Swiss Magazine, Issue 25
2011 Libby and Roberta. “Vox VII – nice and easy” The Art Blog. July 21
2011 Katherine Rochester.“Jury’s Still In...” Philadelphia Weekly. July 6
2010 Deepanjana Pal. “Unsharp Mask” Time Out Mumbai. February 5
2010 “Real Street View” Rhizome.org. January 27
2009 Shahnaz Siganporia. “The Gallery is Dead” Platform Magazine. Nov-Dec Issue
2009 Deepanjana Pal. “Moving On” Time Out Mumbai. October 16
2009 manystuff.org. August 5
Publications
2020 Restricted Fixations, Issue 3, Issue 2, Issue 7 and Issue 8
2017 Arts Illustrated, Cover and Feature
2016 Dictionary of the Possible, Shifter Magazine, Issue 22
2016 post-writer.xyz, Issue 2
2015 Silicon Plateau, for the Center for Internet and Society, Issue 1
2013 Un-publish 2.04, Banner Repeater
2011 Time Magazine. With Allison Freeman for Franklin Street Works
2011 Sleeperhold Publications, Issue 4
2010 Wag’s Revue, Issue 5
Contact me