To Purchase a Ticket: Call the SFAC Gallery at 415.554.6080
Ticket price $100.00 (limited to the first 100 people)

About the ON YOUR MARK event series:
The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery is proud to present ON YOUR MARK, an exclusive social and educational event series featuring two of the Bay Area’s most dynamic and talented artists, Ala Ebtekar and Rosana Castrillo Diaz. Each artist has a special tie with the SFAC Gallery, and we are happy to collaborate with them again just as their work is garnering international attention. The first event, on Saturday, June 14, will feature Ala Ebtekar.

Each ON YOUR MARK event will begin with a reception and an informal dialogue with that evening’s featured artist at Electric Works Gallery (formerly Trillium Press), a gallery and renowned print publisher, followed by a live printmaking demonstration. This intimate series of events will yield a limited number of prints that will be sold to benefit the SFAC Gallery. All funds raised through ticket sales and prints go directly to support the SFAC Gallery programming fund which supports artist honoraria and exhibition costs.

Ala Ebtekar
Ala Ebtekar describes his work as follows, “I'm committed to creating works that give a glimpse of a crossroads where present day events meet history or mythology.” His works, including drawing, prints, paintings, and installations, are inspired by a wide range of influences including Persian carpets and miniature painting, historic photographs, Mexican muralists, graffiti and hip hop culture. 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. He was a 2005 recipient of the San Francisco Foundation’s Murphy & Cadogan Fellowships in the Arts Award. Ebtekar is currently a finalist for the 2008 SECA Award given by SFMoMA biannually to outstanding Bay Area artists. 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 in the 2006 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. In 2007 Ebtekar participated in a six month residency with Cite des Arts in Paris. (Courtesy of Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco.)

Rosana Castrillo Díaz
Rosana Castrillo Díaz’s work explores the breakdown of visual familiarity through minimal use of materials and fragments of recognizable information. She says, "I have a desire to walk through life without filters, exploring, and paying particular attention to overlooked moments, places, and objects. This exploration often leads me to unexpected discoveries, to objects that lie unnoticed in my surroundings - such as a misplaced piece of scotch tape on the wall of my studio, the shades and shadows across an ordinary Xerox copy, the sound of a pencil mark as I draw.” These findings on the periphery often become the beginning of a series of new works. Castrillo Díaz has created works ranging from large installations of web-like, subtle veils that seem to hover at the edge of perception while at the same time being made of ordinary and fragile materials, to simple but highly detailed drawings. She has exhibited throughout the Bay Area, including SFMOMA’s biennial SECA exhibition and Warped Space at the California College of Arts’ Wattis Gallery. She was included in Wall to Wall Drawings: Selections Summer 2005 at The Drawing Center, New York, June 2005. Castrillo Díaz is a recipient of the 2005 Artadia Award and exhibited in Regarding Truth, an exhibition of 2005 Artadia Award recipients at Logan Galleries in 2006. Castrillo Díaz lives and works in San Francisco. (Courtesy of Anthony Meier Gallery, San Francisco.)

These events not only highlight the featured artist, but also allow arts enthusiasts insider knowledge of the printmaking process. Electric Works, Gallery Director, Noah Lang says, “On the outset of every printmaking project, the artist has a vision of what they want to produce. That vision is then tempered by our printmakers and collaborators. More than print assistants, collaborators use their creative sight and technical expertise not only to realize artists' wants, but also to open new avenues which help further realize the work.”