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Janani Balasubramanian is an artist, director, founder, and leading voice in art-science and transformative immersive experience design.

His work has been presented at leading cultural and scientific institutions worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, London School of Economics, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York High Line, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, San Francisco Exploratorium, Andy Warhol Museum, Red Bull Arts, Ace Hotel, Yale Schwarzman Center, and  most recently at The Music Center in Los Angeles in partnership with the Getty Foundation and LeVar Burton Entertainment.

He has received support from many of the nation’s most prestigious funders and commissioning organizations, including the MacArthur Foundation, Sloan Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, OPERA America, Sundance Institute, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Jerome Foundation, and MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology. His many awarded artistic residencies include MacDowell, Camargo, Djerassi, Green Box Arts, Sundance, Pioneer Works, and UCross.

Janani has consulted widely on art-science strategy, creative technology, and effective collaboration—with partners such as the Doris Duke Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, American Museum of Natural History, Cinereach, and John Giorno Foundation. He coaches emerging creators through the MAP Fund and New Inc and teaches immersive experience design at the Stanford d.school.

A 2025 Lenore Tawney Fellow, he is co-author of the forthcoming book Art-Science Undisciplined: A Playbook for Transformative Collaboration  (University of California Press, 2026), and sits on the boards of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Journal on Perspectives in Arts in Health. He is the Founding Executive and Artistic Director of Forever Lab at Stanford Medicine.

Imagine you are in a place of worship—for you, this place could be any-place, not just a church or temple. In this place, through a window, a stream of light comes to meet you in a very precise way.

This moment is so simple, yet so honest, embodied, and full of grace.

That is the feeling I aim to bring to my audiences, in each work: a simple piercing of light. I am interested in every component of this experience: the person, the place, the apparatus, the light.

I work across immersive media, conceptual art, poetry, and prose. All my art is marked by aesthetic precision and clarity—the joy of looking at just a few things with loving attention.

I invite audiences to lean into the unknown with me, with delight and curiosity, without fear.

I have worked in close community with scientists for many years, as well as with the more-than-human entities, phenomena, and creatures of science. In each work, I aim to present an alternative world, one which abounds with care, shapeshifting, exploration, and play, and where cutting-edge science sings alongside the rumble of ancient questions.

I do not build my dreams alone; no one does. Among my collaborators are scientists, producers, fellow artists, and the universe itself. My audience members are always on my mind, and with care for them, I take my time.

I am grateful for the long continuum of other artists who have practiced in this assembly—of art, science, the ancient, the divine. Etel Adnan, Muriel Rukeyser, Lenore Tawney, and Hilma af Klint have been important ancestors for my practice. I hope that years from now, or centuries, an artist or a whole community will go looking for their own artistic ancestors, and I will be there, just as these women have been there for me. If you are reading this text from that future, know that I am with you, in archive and in spirit.

Click here to download my CV

List is abridged to select presentations from 2016+

Abrons Arts Center
Academy of Natural Sciences
Ace Hotel
American University
Andy Warhol Museum
Bard Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Bard Graduate Center
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn Museum
Buntport Theater
Colorado College
Creative Time Summit
CUNY Graduate Center
Djerassi Art Center
Fine Arts Center of Colorado Springs
Freeway Park in Seattle
Guild of Future Architects
IFC Film Center
Invisible Dog Arts Center
Jefferson Market Library
Kampnagel in Hamburg, Germany
Knockdown Center
La Mama Repertory Theatre
Lewis and Clark College
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center La Casita Festival
London School of Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MaxMachina Live
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mount Tremper Arts Center
Mozilla Festival
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
New York High Line
New York Live Arts
New York Public Library
Pioneer Works
Princeton University
Red Bull Arts
San Francisco Exploratorium
Seattle Public Library
Stanford Compression Forum
Stanford University Cantor Arts Center
Sundance Institute
The Chocolate Factory
The Poetry Project
The Public Theater
The Shed
UCLA Center for the Art of Performance
Under the Radar Festival
University of Calgary
University of Colorado – Colorado Springs
University of Washington Meany Center for the Performing Arts
Yale School of Drama

and more…

A note on my grants and awards: The diverse nature of my practice means I often move between established fields and disciplines as they appear in program structures and funding lines. I have been classified in theater/performance, new media, visual arts, and literature, and I have worked with cultural, scientific, and educational institutions. I enjoy alchemizing existing structures to create spaces for play between and beyond disciplines.

Grants/Fellowships

2025: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Lenore Tawney Fellowship
2024-2025: VPA Visiting Artist- Stanford University
2024: Peter Michael Foundation Grant
2024: Opera America Development Grant
2024: Artist Trust Award
2024: Herb Alpert Award Finalist in Performing Arts
2024: Sloan Foundation Books Grant
2023-2024: Stanford University Office of the Arts, Denning Visiting Artist Grant
2023: Amherst College, Visiting Artist in Physics
2022: Sundance/MacArthur Foundation, Project Grant
2020-2022: Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Collider Fellowship
2021-2022: Stanford Ethics Society and Technology Hub, Seed Grant
2021-2022: Sundance Institute, Interdisciplinary Art of Practice Fellowship
2021-2022: Pew Center for Arts and Heritage/Academy of Natural Sciences, Major Project Grant
2021-2022: Center for Art, Science, and Technology at MIT, Project Grant
2021: New York Foundation for the Arts, Artist Fellowship in Fiction (highly competitive pool, ~2% of applicants selected)
2021: Pioneer Works, Fellow in Narrative Arts
2021: Harvard University, Critical Media Practice Grant
2020: Guild of Future Architects, Shared Future Incubator Grant
2020: MAP Fund, Project Grant
2019-2020: Jerome Foundation, Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Theater
2019: Creativity and Innovation at Colorado College, Innovator-in-Residence
2018-2019: The Public Theater, Van Lier Fellowship
2017: New York High Line, Commissioning Grant
2017: Red Bull Arts, Project Grant

Residencies

2025: Herb Alpert/MacDowell Fellowship
2025: Loghaven Artist Residency
2024: Greenbox Arts
2023-2025: HERE Arts Center
2023: Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 50th Anniversary Fellow
2023: Leonardo@Djerassi Resident Artist Program
2023: Camargo Foundation
2023: La Baldi
2023: Colorado College
2023: University of Colorado – Colorado Springs
2023: Sundance/UCross Foundation
2020-2021: Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts
2020: Bard Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
2020: NYU Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics
2019: Brooklyn College/Tow Foundation
2018: Heller Center for Arts and Humanities
2017: Abrons Arts Center
2016: Mount Tremper Arts
2016: Ace Hotel

I frequently work with colleges and universities to present work, teach, give invited talks, and develop new work. Because of my expertise in artist-scientist collaboration, I often work with both arts and STEM programs at any given institution. Possible university engagements can be structured as outlined below. Fees for engagements vary widely depending on the structure of engagement. Presentations of my work (both completed work and works-in-process) can take place in university-affiliated galleries, outdoor spaces, department buildings, community centers, and other locations determined by the theme and form of the selected works.

If you’re a faculty or staff member at a university interested in engaging with me, please write to me and my team and I will take it from there.

Short visits (1-5 days):

In short visits, I often present work, deliver general audience “artist talks”, facilitate master classes, make visits to specific STEM or Art courses, and/or make myself available for collegial meetings with individual faculty members.

E.g: In May 2023, I was a visiting artist in the Amherst College physics department. There, I gave an artist talk available to the five college consortium, conducted two class visits, met with faculty, staff, and students in art and physics.

Term-long residencies (1 academic term):

In term-long residencies, I typically present work, teach classes, conduct creative research with STEM faculty members, deliver general audience artist talks, incubate new artistic work, and/or give work-in-process presentations.

E.g: In Spring 2023, I was a term-long visiting artist at Colorado College. While my work The Gift was being exhibited at the college-affiliated Fine Arts Center, I also taught a studio course on art-astrophysics work, gave multiple public talks with my astrophysicist collaborator, shared a work-in-process presentation, and held office hours for students curious about art-science practice.

Extended engagements (year-long or multi-year):

In extended engagements, I significantly advance ambitious new artistic work, present work, give general audience artist talks, teach, give master classes, hold office hours for students and faculty, and/or advise on new directions for interdisciplinary work on campus.

E.g.: In 2023-2024, I was the Denning Visiting Artist at Stanford University. During this time, I presented my work The Gift and launched new research and creative opportunities with colleagues in Physics, Engineering, and Medicine.

Past university engagements include:

Amherst College
Bard College
Bard Graduate Center
Buntport School of Theology
Colorado College
Dartmouth College
Evergreen State College
Georgetown University
Hampshire College
Harvard University
Kenyon College
Lewis & Clark College
London School of Economics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Northwestern University
Oxford University
Princeton University
Queen’s University
Smith College
Stanford University
University of Amsterdam
University of Calgary
University of California – Los Angeles
University of California – San Diego
University of California – Santa Barbara
University of Chicago
University of Colorado
University of Massachusetts – Amherst
University of Pennsylvania
University of Toronto
University of Utah
University of Washington
Vienna University
Wellesley College
Yale School of Drama
Yale University