roopa vasudevan

Thrilled to be showing a reimagined, site-specific version of “Core Memory” at Palazzo Mora during PERSONAL STRUCTURES — CONFLUENCES, hosted by the @ecc_italy during this year’s Venice Biennal cycle. Thank you so much to @luped and all of the other organizers for your support in getting this together. If you are in Venice this year, please stop by and check out this expansive, thoughtful exhibition. I am honored to be a part of it. Personal Structures is the biennial contemporary art exhibition organised and hosted by the European Cultural Centre Italy in Venice. The 8th edition will run from 9 May until 22 November 2026 in parallel with La Biennale. In a society marked by fractures, displacement, and accelerated transformation, Personal Structures – Confluences emerges as a space for encounter. It is a place where artistic practices, cultures, and disciplines intersect, contaminate one another, and generate new possibilities for coexistence. In the group show, visual artists, photographers, sculptors, performers, universities, and artist collectives, both established and emerging, bring a multitude of perspectives to the historical venues of Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora, and Marinaressa Gardens. More info at the link in bio. Participation in this exhibition, alongside continuing work on the “Core Memory” project, is supported by a 2026 Faculty Research Grant from UMass Amherst.

Honored, humbled, and grateful to have three of my works featured in the new exhibition “Technologies of Relation” at @massmoca curated by the incredible Susan Cross with @meghan___clare . It’s been a true dream to be able to engage in such deep conversation about these ideas over the past three years, and to be showing my work alongside both longtime friends and colleagues, as well as artists I just met last month but have admired for a long, long time: @morehshin @pelenakekebrown @drwngdrwng @take.back.theinternet @mashinkahakopian @dahliaelsayed @silentpatterns @dennysellson @kitekitekitekitekite @laurenleemack @analiasabanstudio . Thank you also to the incredible team at MASS MoCA: @lydsterr_ , @artepoveda , Spencer Byrne-Seres, @rorycoyneart , @laurenlevatocoyne , Ren Rennick, and many others whose labor, thoughtful engagement, and dedication made this all possible. The show is open now and up until the middle of 2027, so I hope you have a chance to come to the museum and see it for yourself. All photos by Jon Verney/MASS MoCA unless otherwise specified. 1-5: “Slow Response I (Drawings)”, 2021-2022. 6-10: “Requiem for the Early Internet”, 2022/2026 (new version commissioned for the exhibition; plaques modeled after a building marker in the museum). 11-13: “False Idols”, 2025 (photo 11 taken by yours truly). 14: Exhibition signage on museum, taken on the day of the opening by yours truly.

Thank you @ebkinsella and @artnet News for the thoughtful engagement with my work in the new @massmoca exhibition “Technologies of Relation” (and for your generous thoughts on the show at large)! Such an honor to be part of this timely show with so many artists that I truly admire. Link in bio to read the article. The show is up at MASS MoCA through July 2027. More documentation coming soon!

So much to post about this semester that it’s almost overwhelming, but just received this incredible pro image of the full “False Idols” triptych installed at @massmoca and needed to put it on the grid for posterity. Thank you so much to @rorycoyneart @laurenlevatocoyne @lydsterr_ and the rest of the team for your work making my wildest visions of this install come true; and to Susan and @meghan___clare for believing in my work for this show. Open through July 2027. Photo by Jon Verney/MASS MoCA.

As I work on my book manuscript, I finally decided to get the OG version bound (3 years after the fact, thank you ProQuest for the thesis on demand service!). Feels nice to have my @annenbergpenn dissertation saved for posterity in this way. 📕📝👩🏽‍💻

The McKinney Visiting Artist Series presents a talk by media artist and researcher Roopa Vasudevan this Friday, March 6 at 5pm in Fine Arts Building 015. Contemporary technologies often present themselves as a closed system: a magical, seamlessly implemented, fast-moving, omnipotent force that we cannot alter or change. But this imaginary did not simply appear from thin air—it was constructed by those with the power to perpetuate this myth. How might we write a different story, and demand a more just tech ecosystem? In this talk, Vasudevan will discuss how, through her technologically-engaged practice—spanning creative coding, artistic self-publishing, drawing, printmaking, and more—she investigates the stories we tell ourselves about digital systems, providing the friction, space, and critical distance necessary to question how tech infiltrates our lives; understand how it is constructed; and imagine alternative futures to the ones presented to us as inevitable. An internationally exhibiting artist, Vasudevan is on the faculty of the art department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Images: “Slow Response I (Drawings)”. Photo by Kyle Cassidy. Headshot photo by Natalie Hijinx. Link in bio. @iucollege @iuahcouncil

This year I got grayer (although not by much), got run into the ground and lifted into the air, and felt equally the despair of living in this country in 2025 and the hope of what might emerge from the fog. I turned 41. I signed a book contract. I taught some amazing students, curated a multi-city and multi-country exhibition series, debuted a solo show of new work that I’m really proud of (and that contained some incredibly new and ambitious work for me), and released the longest artist’s book I’ve made to date. Next year’s a big one, for a lot of reasons. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful new year, and I’m so excited to see you on the other side. 1) Face for the alg, kinda (printing mishaps in exhibition prep) 2) Pattern mapping for “False Idols” 3) Impossible advice from a cyber training for work 4) “Pressure Systems” early WIP 5) “Data Fluencies” window cling in Boston at @bostoncyberarts 6) Flying over the Grand Canyon on the way to the west coast 7) A picturesque setting for a meal, in Joshua Tree the night before @microsarah and @lessismare ’s wedding 8) “Data Fluencies” opening night in Vancouver; flowers from the wonderful @orgallery team 9) Wise words on a coffee shop in Lexington, KY 10) Former (/future?!?) view, June 2025 11) Studio corner, summer 2025 12) @dinosaurjr performing an absolute classic during their hometown show at @treehousebrewco , July 2025 13) Baby goats at @carrsciderhouse 14) On the road during my first visit back to Cleveland since 2018, August 2025 15) Flashing lights through (a very unpolished) “False Idols” during install at @space538 16) Outside of @pickwickindependentpress 17) My aloe (gifted by @joannaceramic in 2023!) having babies 18) Literally the only photo I have somehow of @freeman_christina and @brianggeorge ’s wedding 19) Amsterdam, December 2025 20) Packing up work to go to @massmoca for the exhibition “Technologies of Relation” (opening Feb 21, more soon!)

Some belated good news. So thankful that the work that started as my dissertation is going to be able to reach a much wider audience. Thank you to @mitpress for the supportive, collaborative proposal process. Can’t wait to get this out!

Zine projects created for ART 390STC: Publishing as Practice at @umass_art_ (Fall 2025). These works were all created in a little under 2 weeks and represent a broad range of topics and media, spanning photography, poetry, collage, hand drawing, and more. Thanks to @jeffkasperstudio for suggesting I make this video for a work-related recruitment reason (😅); it ended up being a great document of the students’ projects. Works by (in order of appearance): Brian Curry, Sebastian Parker, Julia Pellegrini, Margaret Lepeshkin, Kyra Diman, Em Hinchey, Lindsey Lavoie, Misho Minevski, Camille Gomez, Vic Vallee, and Holly Marciniak.

Truly honored to share space with @bri_n ’s lovely work in @jsawriter ’s thoughtful review of our shows in the @portlandpressherald . Thank you so much to Jorge for so deeply engaging in the exhibition, and for seeing the emotion and humanity underpinning the technical exterior. Thank you also to @plutobandit @waxywaxydetails @mmeghahn and everyone at @space538 for your advocacy of my work. So glad to be able to show with you. Link to the full piece in my bio (there is an option to buy access to the article for $0.99 for a day, or reach out direct if that’s not feasible).

ARTIFICIAL ABUNDANCE Roopa Vasudevan SPACE Gallery (@space538 ) Portland, Maine September 5 - October 11, 2025 “Artificial Abundance” is a solo exhibition of new work by media artist Roopa Vasudevan, which contrasts the escalating hype surrounding artificial intelligence with the realities of its implementation. Through a series of mixed-media artworks spanning digital and analog prints, stained glass, code-based animation, and interactive systems, the artist unpacks the requisite assumptions of limitlessness and omnipotence inherent to our current conceptions of AI—which stand in direct contrast to the finite, tangible resources necessary to support it. Eschewing controversial large language models (LLMs) and image-generation software in favor of more mundane, everyday instantiations and representations of AI technology, Vasudevan attempts to surface the metaphors, anthropomorphism, and fears that have both driven the development of these tools, and which also inform our understanding of their future roles in society. By pointing to constructed ideals concerning what AI is (and is not), Vasudevan asks what we are implying about the more ineffable qualities of life, learning, and humanity—the things that cannot be encoded into 0s and 1s—when we are faced with the rush to classify, quantify, and automate our existence into infinity. The exhibition and the artist’s residency at SPACE will coincide with the release of a limited-run artist’s book, featuring new writing by Vasudevan alongside versions of the artwork specifically designed to be viewed in a print format. “Artificial Abundance” is generously supported by the Emerson Collective Culture Council and the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at UMass Amherst. Window fabrication by Dragonfly Stained Glass Studio (@dragonflystainedglassstudio , Easthampton MA). Printing and fabrication assistance from Mikaël Petraccia (@mikaelpetraccia ) and Benjamin Cowden (@involute_studio ). Risograph printing and book binding by Risolve (@risolve ). Photo documentation by Joel Tsui (@artarchival ).

Late summer / “Artificial Abundance” process dump. More professional photos of the show to come but in the meantime I’m so excited about having this new work up and on view. Portland: the show is open at @space538 through October 11! Thank you to @plutobandit @mmeghahn @gregjamie and everyone else at SPACE for making my residency and install so great. Special treat for those who scroll to the end of the carousel: me with my first “AI”. Circa 1987-1988.