TENZIN PHUNTSOG


Tenzin Phuntsog is an award-winning artist and filmmaker, he works across moving image, narrative film, and installation. Centered in a Tibetan diasporic gaze, his practice explores themes of landscape, presence, and belonging. Critics recognize his work for its innovative use of 35mm motion picture film, in which he lenses his own projects with a singular sensibility. Throughout his body of work, his interest in technology and its capacity to transform perception—mediating the quotidian and sublime, as well as distance and time—remains evident. He founded and directs the Tibet Film Archive, a collection of rare and historical films shot inside Tibet before the occupation and through the early exile years. This archival work informs his personal projects, and vice versa. Phuntsog earned his MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University in New York and his BFA in Media Art from UCLA in Los Angeles. Microscope Gallery in New York represents his artworks. He recently completed his first feature narrative film, Next Life, executive produced by Carlos Reygadas. The film world premiered at FID Marseille, where it won two awards and established him as a groundbreaking voice in contemporary art and cinema. Currently, he develops his second feature film, Sentient Beings, with support from SFFILM. His debut solo exhibition at Microscope Gallery, titled Pure Land, garnered praise and press in New York. Institutions worldwide have exhibited and screened his works, including at the Berlinale Forum Expanded, Rotterdam, FID Marseille, Microscope Gallery, The Tang Museum, Eye Filmmuseum, The Haus for Media Art Oldenburg, Seoul Media City Biennale, European Media Arts Festival EMAF, Camden, Experimenta India, Blackstar, and REDCAT in Los Angeles. Phuntsog has received numerous honors, such as serving as a Flaherty Fellow, Haus of Media Art Grant Recipient, and NARS New York Artist in Residence. He also consulted for the Prince Claus Funds. Based in San Francisco, he teaches at the California College of the Arts (CCA). During the pandemic, he organized free virtual workshops for artists and filmmakers under the banner of Stateless Cinema. These sessions aimed to build community and model sustainable art practices, drawing on the strategies and philosophical outlooks of invited participants. The Giuseppe Kaiser Stiftung and the Ford Foundation supported the workshops.

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SENTIENT BEINGS
Directed by Tenzin Phuntsog
Sentinent Beings information coming soon:

RECENT EVENTS


Center for Ethnographic Media Arts, USC, Los Angeles, CA, Sept 2025
The Cottonwood, Film Showcase - Livingston, MT, Sept 2025
Giorno Poetry Systems, Forms of Awakening, Book Launch - New York, NY Sept 2025
World Premiere: Next Life, FID Marseille - Marseille, FR, July 2025
Next Life In Competition for Best First Feature, Cine+ Competition
North American Premiere: BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA, August 2025
Carnegie Mellon, Constructing Cinema, The School of Art - Pennsylvania, PA March 2025
House for Media Art, Gyatso, Oldenburg, DE, Solo Exhibition, Sep-Oct 2024
House for Media Art, Artist in Residence, Oldenburg, DE, 2024
Experimenta India - Goethe Institute, Bangalore, IN, Dec 2024
Tang Museum, Forms of Awakening, Group Exhibition - Saratoga Springs, NY, Oct-Dec 2023
Redcat, Roy and Edna Disney Theater - Los Angeles, CA, Nov 2023
Whole Grain, Tang Museum - Saratoga Springs, NY, Oct 2023
CALARTS, Cinematic Voices, Film & Video, Los Angeles
European Media Art Film Festival, Trembling Time - Kunsthalle, Osnabrück, DE, April 2023
Seoul Media City Biennale, This Too is a Map, Group Exhibition - Seoul, KR, Sept-Nov 2023
Berlinale, Forum Expanded Exhibition, An Atypical Orbit - Berlin, DE, Feb-March 2023
World Premiere: Rotterdam International Film Festival, Pure Land, Netherlands Jan 2023
Pure Land In Competition for Tiger Ammodo Short Film Award
Microscope Gallery, Pure Land, Solo Exhibition - New York, NY, March-April 2022
CALARTS, Visiting Artist Workshop, Film & Video, Los Angeles
NARS, Artist in Residence - Sunset Park, NY, 2021

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