The Townsend Center is pleased to have Ala Ebtekar’s striking diptych, “A Breath of Air” (2008, acrylic and ink on book pages mounted on canvas) on display for the 2009 spring semester. Born in the United States to Iranian parents, Ebtekar was raised in both Iran and the U.S. As a young teenager he joined the K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), working with artist Tim Rollins on collaborative artworks involving groups of urban youth. He received his BA from the San Francisco Art Institute and in 2006 his MFA degree at Stanford. Ebtekar was a 2005 recipient of the San Francisco Foundation’s Murphy & Cadogan Fellowships in the Arts Award. His work is exhibited internationally and was recently featured in two prestigious exhibitions: “One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now,” a touring exhibition originating at the Asia Society, NYC, and the 2006 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. In 2007, Ebtekar’s work was featured in a solo exhibition at Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco and in “Under the Indigo Dome” at The Third Line in Dubai. In 2008, he was featured in Bay Area Now 5, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. He is a visiting lecturer at UC Berkeley and Stanford University.

Visit the artist's website.