Present Tense Artist Talks
Quarterly — Next Event: November 9, 2024, 2:00 - 5:00 pm
Present Tense Artist Talks are in-person, quarterly events hosted by Medium Photo, showcasing work from four selected photographers.
During each Present Tense Artist Talk, participating photographers share up to 20 slides of a singular body of work projected on a large screen in a repeating loop. Each photographer will discuss their work throughout the slide show and responds to a Q&A during a 15-minute period.
Present Tense Artist Talks are an informal, conversational environment moderated by Medium Photo. There is no cost to submit your work and no cost to attend.
To expand the opportunity for more photographers to show their work and for all of us to see more photographs, we are having a pre-show in the form of a mini portfolio walkthrough with prints on a table. Each of the selected presenters and 3 additional juror selected photographers will have their prints out for you to see and to talk with the photographer and each other.
Table viewing will go from 2:00pm - 3:15pm. The presentations will follow the mini portfolio walk.
Di Huang, Untitled, 2019
DI HUANG
Di is this quarter’s student presenter representing Palomar College and selected by the photo department faculty. Di is a freelance photographer based in Oceanside, California. Di specializes in event photography where he loves capturing life’s best moments. In his free time, Di enjoys spending his money at REI, despite having gone on 0 camping trips thus far.
Follow Di on Instagram.
Stephan Jahanshahi, Pahlavi Tea Cup, 2024
Wen-Hang, Lin, Mesa Recycling Center, AZ, 2023
Wen-Hang Lin
Born and raised in Taiwan, Wen-Hang Lin is a photographer residing in Arizona. In his photography, Lin brings together elements of realism and abstraction, blending them harmoniously to depict a captivating continuum between the objective world and our subjective perceptions.
Follow Wen-Hang on Instagram and learn more on their website.
Valentina Sepúlveda, From the project: Hot Nights and Early Mornings at the Heartbreak Motel, 2024
VALENTINA SEPÚLVEDA
A cross-border artist specialized in photography, with explorations in installation and performance, Valentina Sepúlveda takes elements such as narrative and staging from cinema, literature and contemporary art to construct her works. She is interested in questioning and reconstructing the concept of identity towards the absurd through explorations of gender performativity in relation to a cross-border territory between Tijuana/San Diego. The sociocultural markers around sexuality and the nodes between the public and private inhabit specifics of time and space.
Follow Valentina on Instagram and learn more on their website.
Location
Mission Valley Library Community Room
2123 Fenton Pkwy, San Diego, CA 92108
The Library has ample street parking, in addition to a one-minute walk away from the the Fenton Parkway trolley stop. There is no charge to attend!
Present Tense #3 Juror: Lauren R. O’Connell, Curator of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Each edition of Present Tense Artist Talks will have a different juror of note drawn from across North America, and each juror will select three presenters for the talks, and four additional artists for the portfolio walk. The fourth presenter is a student selected by the faculty of a participating college.
About Lauren
Lauren R. O’Connell is curator of contemporary art at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, an accredited and internationally recognized institution that aspires to produce and mediate creative expressions that lead to connected curiosity and shared meaning across a wide range of publics.
O’Connell previously held positions at the UC Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Her curatorial practice is rooted in artist-centric projects that expand and challenge artistic mediums, conceptual frameworks, and relational experiences. O'Connell's research focuses on how art recontextualizes reality through epistemological examinations, speculative and historical reformations, and altered environments.
Follow the museum on Instagram @_smoca
Call for Submissions
Submissions for Present Tense Artist Talks are free of charge. All types of photography may be submitted. Everyone may submit, including both established artists, emerging photographers, and students. You don’t have to be from San Diego or Tijuana, but you do have to be in San Diego to present your work at this live, in-person event.
The submission dates for Present Tense 4 will be announced in Early 2025.
Submissions and File Formats
You will be asked to submit 20 images from a body or work. If your work is selected all 20 of these images will be projected at Present Tense Artist Talks. These are the files that will be used in your final presentation. Images must be submitted as jpeg files numbered in the sequence you want them seen, and with dimensions included as inches (HxW) in the file name, using this naming convention:
number-title-year-medium-length-width.jpg
Files must be 2000px in the long dimension, saved at 1MB or smaller. Incomplete submissions will not be considered.