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Ala Ebtekar’s research-based practice moves between painting and photography, art and science, exploring the juncture between history, myth, and culture. Born in Berkeley, CA to Iranian activist parents, Ebtekar’s upbringing led him to explore the spaces between cultures, both shared and separated, resulting in a practice that disquiets dominant notions of identity and complicates cultural difference.
Ebtekar’s most recent works consider cosmic travel and the phenomenology of light, considering light itself as both concept and medium. His mixed-media photographs, paintings and installations combine the cyanotype process, originally invented by the astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842, with references to literature and bookmaking, philosophy and theology, and the traditional arts of Iran.
Ebtekar received his MFA from Stanford University and BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at institutions including the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada; Asia Society Museum, New York, NY; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; Berkeley Art Museum, CA; Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, TX; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; DePaul University Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; and ZKM - Museum for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany.
