New Perspectives: An Exhibition by Armando Zirakzadeh

Armando "Ardy'' Zirakzadeh was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1955 to an Iranian father and a Guatemalan mother. His family moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 1956, where his father taught mathematics at the University of Colorado and his mother taught Spanish for the Boulder Valley School District. 

Ardy graduated from Boulder High in 1974, and attended Colorado State University, where he received a BFA in Printmaking in 1981. From 1984 -1990 he owned Master Screen Art, where he designed original silkscreens for clients. In 1990 he began a career teaching visual arts in the Boulder Valley School District. He remained with the district until his retirement in 2012, when he opened Fat Bird Studios, an intaglio printmaking studio. In 2021 the studio was destroyed in the Marshall Fire; the last two years have seen Ardy returning to his work using pencils, Sharpies and ink washes. 

Ardy has been a member of the Artnauts International Art collective since 2013, a group that displays art in countries that are experiencing war and diaspora. He has exhibited in Colorado and other states from 2013-2021, and, was a featured artist at R Gallery in Boulder, Colorado, in 2020 and 2021. He most recently has been in an international exhibition entitled “Cancer: Never Give Up” in 2021-2022.