ALA EBTEKAR | AZIMUTH III

The Third Line, Dubai

Ala Ebtekhar (b. 1978) holds an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Ebtekhar's recent creative investigations have created liminal experiences, to longer notions of scientific duration beyond human timelines, cosmic travel and the phenomenology of light. These projects bring forth sculptural and photographic possibilities of the universe, gazing back through endless collapses of time and physical reworking of centuries old processes of image making. His practice extends how our contemporary moments both live together as minuscule and paramount amidst an infinite score of skies and stars. He currently teaches at Stanford University in the Department of Art & Art History, Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford, and Global Studies at Stanford. He is the founder and director of Art, Social Space and Public Discourse, a Stanford global initiative on art that investigates the multiple contexts that shift and define changing ideas of public space.

Solo shows include Safina, The Third Line (2018); Nowheresville, The Third Line, Dubai (2015); Elsewhen, The Third Line, Dubai (2012) and Emergence, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California (2006).

His work has been featured in group exhibitions such as, yasiin bey: Negus, The Brooklyn Museum, New York (2019); The Moon: A Voyage through Time, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2019); Be Not Still: Living in Uncertain Times, Di Rosa Art, Napa, California (2018); Long, Winding Journeys: Contemporary Art and the Islamic Tradition, Katonah Museum of Art, New York (2018); the 2014 Xinjiang Biennale; Migrating Identities, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2013); The Beginning of Thinking is Geometric, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah (2013); The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989, ZKM – Museum for Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe (2011); One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now, a touring exhibition originating at the Asia Society, New York (2008) and the California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Orange County (2006).

Ebtekhar's works are in public and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt; Devi Art Foundation, Haryana, India; Orange County Museum of Art, Orange County; de Young Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley among several others. Ebtekhar has been awarded residencies at ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; 18th Street Art Center in Los Angeles; Sazmanab, Tehran, Iran, and the San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco.

Ebtekhar works between his native San Francisco Bay Area and Tehran, Iran.