Pushpamala N (b. 1956, Bengaluru, India) is a pioneering Indian artist whose practice spans sculpture, photography, video, and performance. She completed her undergraduate studies at Bangalore University, followed by a BA and MA in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. While her early work sought to articulate an indigenous visual language rooted in ideas of “Indianness,” her practice later shifted decisively toward staged photography and video-performance.

Pushpamala is best known for her conceptual photo-performances in which she appears as the central subject, inhabiting a wide range of constructed personae. Drawing on cinematic, ethnographic, and mythological genres, her works employ masquerade, parody, and role-play to interrogate representation, authorship, and the politics of the image. Her sculptural training remains evident in the carefully composed, iconic, and materially grounded quality of her images.

Through the deliberate staging of both real and fictional histories, Pushpamala critically examines stereotypes, archetypes, and the narratives that shape national identity, gender roles, and cultural memory. By subjecting herself to layered political and social readings, she simultaneously reclaims agency and invites viewers to reflect on their own complicity in systems of looking.

She lives and works in Bengaluru, India.