Albert THOLEN (Zakkubalan)

Profile 

THOLEN is an artist and filmmaker.
Born in Washington, DC. Lives and works in New York. Graduated with a BA in Film Studies from Wesleyan University in 2015.
He has produced fiction films that have played at world-renowned festivals such as Sundance, TIFF, SXSW, and Locarno. As half of artist duo Zakkubalan, Albert has shown video installation at the Singapore Biennale and Watari-um Museum of Contemporary Art, among others.

Recent exhibitions:
2021 “Below the lighthouse is the darkest part of the night," The David Ireland House, San Francisco 
2021 “Ryuichi Sakamoto: seeing sound, hearing time," M WOODS, Beijing
2019 "Singapore Biennale 'Every Step in the Right Direction',” National Gallery
2019 “The Science of Cinema Arts, Led by the East”, Dojima River Biennale, Osaka, Japan 
2018 “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Life, Life”, piknic, Seoul, Korea  

Recent Awards and Grants:
2021 "Grand Jury Prize Live Action Short Film," for “Bruiser,” Seattle International Film Festival Live Action Short Film 

About works / performance

Through his film work, Tholen creates engaging and thoughtful narratives with humor, a political bent, artistic sensitivity, and an international perspective. Zakkubalan (est. 2016) is New York-based artist duo Neo Sora and Albert Tholen. Both professional filmmakers, the pair push past the constraints of normative storytelling in this collaboration to explore new sensory and emotive possibilities in cinema through video art and audiovisual installation.