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  • Name
    Karthik Pandian
  • Title
    Surrendur
  • Category
    Exhibition
  • Date
    Mar 15 – Jun 10, 2025
  • Location
    Midway Contemporary Art (1509 NE Marshall Street)
  • Opening Reception

    Saturday, March 15, 6 – 8pm
  • Description

    Please join us on March 15th for the opening of Surrendur, an exhibition by Karthik Pandian. Pandian describes the title work as “a machine for homecoming — a platform to gather, find our relations, receive light, and feel the vibrations of a liberated future”. Revisiting themes from his 2010 exhibition Before the Sun at Midway Contemporary Art and his 2022 off-site project In the River, Pandian’s new work intends to help seed the spiritual ground for Land Back on Turtle Island.

    Surrendur emerges from the artist’s ongoing collaboration with American Indian Movement activist Mike Forcia (Bad River Anishinaabe), composer and sonic sculptor Douglas R. Ewart, and Indigenous Earth Protector Ta Pejuta Wicahpi Win (Hunkpati Dakota Oyate) and features contributions from Amina Claudine Myers, Cameron Patricia Downey, Jonathon Rosemond, Bailey Samber, Julia Helen Rice, Sam Phipps, Azuré Kauikeolani Iversen-Keahi, Thomas Draskovic-Chetan Ohitika (Standing Rock Lakota), Sam Aros-Mitchell (Texas Band of Yaqui Indians), Lela Pierce, Leila Awadallah, Lakota “Hokie” Clairmont (Hochunk/Lakota), Akičita Šuŋka-Wakaŋ Ska (Standing Rock Lakota), Niko Georgiades and Unicorn Riot, Luis Arnías, Robby MacBain, Ernst Karel, and Lalitha Pandian.

    Special thanks to Gabby Menomin (Forest County Potawatomi) and Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi for their partnership in cultivating this work.

    The exhibition will remain on view through June 10th. Midway’s regular hours are Wednesday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm and admission is free. Please keep an eye out for details on forthcoming public programs in May and June presented in conjunction with the exhibition.
  • Support
    This exhibition is made possible with support from Creative Capital Foundation, MacDowell, the Film Studies Center at Harvard University, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
  • Thanks

    Paige Johnston, Aaru Motherwell Pandian, Ganesh Pandian, Vidhya Pandian, Anand Pandian, Reshma Hussam, Mariah Garnett, Helen O’Leary, Nicole Otero, Rhayne Vermette, Lisa E. Harris, Adrian Williams, Andros Zins-Browne, Zakaria Almoutlak, Michael Silverman, Anthony Romero, Elias, Jiraiya, Taylor from Friends Print Collective, Jumana Manna, Eben Kowler, Mike Wiggins Jr., David Stone Jr., Jason Forcia, Kristine Sorenson, Katie Soule, Stefan Grabowski, Xiaolu Weng, Max Nesterak, George Liu, Xochitl Morales, Gabby Preston, Kat Chavez, Yolanda Yang, Nace Zavrl, Regina Daniels, Bridget Sabatke, Casey Lurie, Arielle Jennings, Jim Heal, Palita Chunsaengchan, Elliott Powell, Isa Gagarin, Pao Houa Her, Joseph Pierce, Fraser McCallum, Erin Gleeson, Kelsey Olson, Matt Friesen, John Ballinger, and Candice Davis
  • Bio

    Karthik Pandian is an artist and teacher developing ceremonial technologies. He has presented his works in moving image, sculpture, performance, and sound internationally at exhibition venues such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer, the Palais de Tokyo, and the Whitechapel Gallery and on digital platforms such as the Criterion Channel and Triple Canopy. He is a professor of Art, Film, & Visual Studies at Harvard University and a guide, certified in offering Lama Rod Owens’ Seven Homecomings.
  • Surrendur is

    dedicated to Pope.L