07/11/2026
EL CONSULADO is pleased to share Present Tension, a residency exhibition by Venezuelan artist Carlos J. Gómez de Llarena Carlos Javier Gómez de Llarena at Nguyen Wahed Gallery Nguyen Wahed
Through video installations, computer vision, responsive media, and AI-assisted workflows, Present Tension examines what happens when human presence becomes input for computation.
In contemporary public space, appearing before a camera or sensor increasingly means participating without being asked. A person’s image can be recorded, analyzed, anonymized, targeted, erased, or transformed. The exhibition asks what consent means when presence itself is treated as permission.
The question is no longer only who is watching. It is also what a person becomes once they are seen by a computational system: an image, a target, a dataset, a sound, or an abstraction.
Across the exhibition, technologies of recognition move between control and play, violence and spectacle, disappearance and performance.
Visitors may see themselves transformed into audiovisual compositions, removed from live camera feeds, or reimagined through generative systems. Some works are presented as finished studies, while others remain prototypes in development, inviting participation and audience feedback.
Together, the works extend Gómez de Llarena’s ongoing investigation into public space, responsive media, and participatory systems while addressing new questions created by machine vision and generative image-making.
Present Tension
Carlos J. Gómez de Llarena | Residency
🗓 July 16–31, 2026
📍Nguyen Wahed Gallery
504 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10009
⏰️Tuesday–Saturday
2:00–6:00 PM
Admission is free.
