Ala Ebtekar: Elsewhen

Informed both by his cultural background and what it means to be a part of a diasporic community in the 21st Century, Ala Ebtekar’s meticulous paintings, drawings, and installations have imagined what the present day could look like if it collided with history and mythology.

Exhibited widely throughout the United States and internationally, Ebtekar’s impressive body of work over the past decade has drawn evocative parallels between events unfolding today and events and stories of the past. Challenged by an increasing desire to look towards the future and how to manifest this palpable impulse into a new series of work, he began researching the narratives and concepts of the literary genre of science fiction, where depictions of the future, space flight, and time travel set the stage for narratives of realistic speculation about possible future events.