“My own work has focused mainly on both the built and natural landscape of California. I am among a generation of photographers who truly embraced digital technology as a way to make photographs that could not be made using only traditional means.”
Amir Zaki (USA, b. 1974) makes photographs of California landscapes and architecture, and he re-envisions the world before him, creating a tension between the functional and the dysfunctional. For the past twenty-five years, Zaki has developed a photographic language which seeks to elevate the formal qualities of California’s architecture and landscape.
Born and raised in Beaumont, California, Zaki received his BA from UC Riverside (1996) and MFA from UCLA (1999). He has received solo exhibitions in Los Angeles with Diane Rosenstein Gallery, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, ACME, and Edward Cella Gallery; in Antwerp with David DeBoer Gallery; and with James Harris Gallery in Dallas and Seattle. Amir Zaki’s photographs were included in The New City: Sub/urbia in Recent Photography, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY (2006); Golden Hour: California Photography from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Vincent Price Art Museum (2022); Something About A Tree (curated by Linda Yablonsky), Flag Art Foundation, NY (2013); the 2006 California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA; Out of Control: The Concrete Art of Skateboarding (curated by Patrik Andersson), Audain Art Museum, Whistler, BC, Canada; and PST ART: Art & Science Collide (2024-2025).
His work is in the permanent collection of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Orange County Museum of Art, and the Henry Art Gallery at University of Washington in Seattle; among others. He is a full professor of art at UC Riverside. Amir Zaki lives and works in Huntington Beach.