Tenzin Phuntsog
Born New Delhi, India 1982
Lives and works between San Francisco, CA and New York, NY
Education
MFA Visual Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY 2006
BA Design Media Arts, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 2003
Solo Exhibitions
“The Last Dream at the End of the World,” Microscope Gallery, New York, NY 2026
“Gyatso,” House for Media Art, Oldenburg, DE 2024
“Pure Land,” Microscope Gallery, New York, NY 2022
Selected Group Exhibitions
“This Too is a Map,” Seoul Media City Biennale, Seoul, KR 2023
“Forms of Awakening,” Tang Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY 2023
“The State of the World: The Museum of the South Atlantic,” Galerias Municipais, Lisbon, Portugal, 2022/23
“Utterances,” NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY 2021
“Scrapbook (or, Why Can’t We Live Together,” Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2019
“ICM 002,” La Sala. Brooklyn, NY 2013
“Southern Panoramas.” VideoBrasil Biennale, São Paulo, Brazil 2011
“Talk About Nothing,” The Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY 2010
“La Chinoise,” Hong Kong Film Archives, Hong Kong HK 2007
Galeria Vermelho, “Comunismo da Forma” São Paulo BR 2007
“Video Art Festival,” LOOP, Barcelona SP 2006
“LA Freewaves,”Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Geffen, Los Angeles CA 2004
Selected Solo Screenings & Performances
“Films by Tenzin Phuntsog: Recent Works and Works In Progress,” USC Dornsife, Los Angeles, CA 2025 “Whole Grain: Four Films by Tenzin Phuntsog,” Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY 2023 “Heeding (Land) / Roaming (Heart) / Grasping (Language),” REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA 2023 “Rituals of Resistance,” collaboration w/ Joy Dietrich, Hunter College, New York, NY 2021 “Rituals of Resistance,” collaboration w/ Joy Dietrich, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY 2019 “Four Rivers,” Microscope Gallery, New York, NY 2011 “Resistance of Tibetan Exiles” (virtual), Asia American Arts Alliance, New York, NY 2021 “Rituals of Resistance,” Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY 2019 “My Skins,” (performance), Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2019
Selected Group Screenings & Performances
LACMA Screening, Los Angeles, CA 2026
Tibet Film Festival, Zurich, CH 2026
Experimenta India, Goethe Institute, Bangalore, IN 2026
“Revolution Short Film Program,” Slamdance Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA 2026
“Narrative and Feature Programs,” Maryland Film Festival, Baltimore, MD 2025
“Emerging Voices,” Houston Cinema Arts Festival, Houston, TX 2025
“The Cottonwood Film Showcase,” The Cottonwood Club, Livingston, MT 2025
“Feature Narrative Program,” BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA 2025
“New Trajectories: Feature Film Premieres,” Message to Man Film Festival, Moscow, RU 2025
“First Feature Competition,” FID Marseille, Marseille FR 2025
“Feature Films,” Twin Cities Film Fest, Minneapolis, MN 2025
“International Program 3,” Experimenta India, Bangalore, IN 2024
“Trembling Time: Ruins, Replacements,” European Media Art Festival (EMAF) No. 36, Osnabruck, Germany 2023
“Ammodo Tiger Short Competition,” Rotterdam Film Festival (IFFR), Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2023
“Feature Films,” Camden International Film Festival, Rockport ME 2020
“Chronicles,” BlackStar Film Festival, Philadelphia PA 2020
“Experiment 11: Guild Cinema,” Experiments in Cinema, Albuquerque NM 2020
“The Meditative Life 2020: Consciousness, Meaning, and Connection,” Jacob Burns Film Center, Pleasantville NY 2020
Tibet Film Festival, Dharamsala, IN 2019
Tibet Film Festival, Zurich CH 2019
Groundwork Labs at Visionmaker, Lincoln NE 2019
San Diego Asian American Film Festival, San Diego CA 2019
Asian American Film Festival, Asia Society, New York, NY 2019
Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, NY 2018
The Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY 2014
Festival Jean Rouch, Regards Compares, Paris 2013
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY 2011
“Harlem in Tibet: Spotlight on Emerging Filmmakers,” Maysles Documentary Center, New York, NY 2010
Hawaii International Film Festival, Honolulu HI 2006
Residencies
SFFILM FilmHouse Residency, San Francisco, CA 2025
Media Arts Residency Scholarship, Edith-Russ-Haus für Media Art, Oldenburg, Germany 2023
Marble House, Dorset, VT 2022
NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY 2021
Flaherty Fellow, New York, NY 2021
Blue Mountain Center, Blue Mountain Lake, NY 2014
Artist Talks
“The Image That Eludes the Conscious Mind,” Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 2026
“The Image That Eludes the Conscious Mind: Workshop with Tenzin Phuntsog,” USC Dornsife, Los Angeles, CA 2025
“First Person Cinema,” Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts, Boulder, CO
“As Seen from an Atypical Orbit,” silent green, Berlin, Germany 2023
“Q&A,” International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2023
“Artist Talk: Tenzin Phuntsog,” Microscope Gallery, New York, NY, 2022
“New Voices,” California School of the Arts (CalArts), Los Angeles, CA 2021
Cornell Ethnographic Film Department, Ithaca, NY 2021
CalArts Visiting Artist Series, Los Angeles, CA 2020
Buddhist Film Festival, Eye Museum, Amsterdam NL 2019
“Art & Practice,” School of the Visual Arts (SVA), New York, NY 2019
Eye Museum Symposium, Amsterdam NL 2018
National Gallery, Singapore SG 2018
Catalogs
“Forms of Awakening: Tibetan Art: From the Jack Shear Collection,” by Benjamin Bogin et al., DelMonico Books, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, pp. 297, 302-303, 2025
“The Day the Sun Died,” by Kellen Quinn, Psyche, Aeon Publishing, 2021
“Flaherty Seminar Catalogue,” by World Records, The Flaherty, 2020
“The Power of Non-Conformity Catalogue,” Rubin Museum of Art, 2019
“Asian American Film Festival Catalogue,” Asian CineVision, 2019
“Margaret Mead Film Festival Catalogue,” American Museum of Natural History, 2018
“Activating the Archive” Eye Filmmuseum, 2018
National Gallery Singapore, Painting with Light Catalogue, 2017
Metrograph Cinemas, Catalogue 2016
Festival Jean Rouch, Regard Compares Catalogue 2013
Video Brasil, Southern Panoramas Biennale catalogue, 2011
“Talk about Nothing,” The Rubin Museum of Art, exhibition catalogue 2010
Buddhist Film Festival Europe, Catalogue 2010
“Comunismo Da Forma,” Video Brasil Catalogue, by Marcelo Rezende, Alameda Press, 2008
Awards
Emerging Director Award, Documentary, Asian CineVision, New York, NY 2019
Flaherty Fellow, The Flaherty, New York, NY 2019
Agnes Martin Fellow, Columbia University, New York, NY 2006