Biography
Alan Abdulkader b. 1982 in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan. At the age of eight, his family left the homeland and chased a dream that was many Kurd’s dreams—to live in peace. After many attempts and crossing many borders from neighboring regimes, Alan and his family were able to settle in a refugee camp in Syria for about seven years before coming to the United States, a new world of both dreams and struggles. A new start is both hardship and potential for a new identity and an opportunity for who one wishes to be. Of course, one cannot simply escape the past, but one can see how the past can lead forward.
Since arriving in the United States, Alan has started a new journey into the world that is often referred to as creative such as art, architecture, and writing, an exploration of the text as a form of expression, and a search for the unknowns. Coming from a background steeped in political uncertainty and turmoil has impacted his visual making and writings. Those moments have become visible in his art, writing, and part of his architecture he regenerated the atrocities of the city of Halabja, and the political border of Kurdistan with his thesis.
His areas of study lie between art, architecture, and writing. Practice architecture in Seattle and teaches design and silver gelatin photography courses and working towards a new architecture fundamental class as part of Green River College Fine Arts curriculum. Being caught between the world of making and exploring is a unique experience that has allowed him to imagine the unimaginative within his work. The cognitive mind is not a linear path but a journey into an unknown voyage.
Exhibition:
2023: Body's Memory | Make Shift Art Space Gallery | Bellingham, WA
2018: Body's Memory | Kolva-Sulavan Gallery | Spokane, WA
2017: Ephemeral Text | Pierce College, Puyallup, WA
2014: Land(e)scape | AA's collective work | Axis Gallery | Seattle, WA
2013: Body Topography | Highline Community College, Des Moines, WA
2013: Body's Memory | Pierce College, Puyallup, WA
2013: competition | Fordham University Center Gallery, New York, NY
2012: Oblivion | Green River College, Auburn, WA
2012: Identity Search | ArtsWest, Seattle, WA
2011: Absence, Silence and Topographic Politics | South Seattle C, Seattle, WA
2011: Oblivion | Kolva-Sulavan Gallery, Spokane, WA
2011: TIMEless, Exploring the 4D space | Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, CA
2010: Architecture Thesis | WSU Fine Arts Gallery III, Pullman, WA
2010: Space 11 | Woodbury University Hollywood, Burbank, CA
Press:
2023: Artistonish | Contemporary Art Magazine | Body's Memory | 38th Issue Magazine page
2019-2020: Crosscurrents | Washington State College Faculty Associations | Ephemeral Text | photograph
Oblivion | painting
2014: Adobe | Design Achievement Awards | Topography | Illustration Semifinalist
2013: High Line College Paper | Des Moines, Washington | Scars of War | Digital Collage
2011: The Pacific NW Inlander | Spokane, Washington | Border Issue | Thesis Publication
2010: Escape Literary Journal | WSU Pullman, Washington | Thesis | Cover Page | Editor's Choice
2005-2009: Escape Literary Journal | Photography | Nine Photographs in four different issues
Education:
Washington State University | Pullman, Washington
2010 | Masters in Architecture
2008 | Bachelor of Science in Architecture
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Minor in English Creative Writing
Green River College | Auburn, Washington
2004 | Associate of Arts Degree (AA)
