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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