Doris Bittar
Artist, writer, educator, and civil rights organizer Doris Bittar’s art is based on the migratory attributes of patterns. A nationally and internationally exhibiting artist, Bittar’s art is in public and private collections in the US, Arab World, and Europe. She is a recent California Artist Legacy recipient and her project "Colonial Colonnade" premiered at the Arab American National Museum from November 2023 to June 2024. Bittar was a professor of art for 25 years at the University of California San Diego, California State University San Marcos, the American University of Beirut, and was a visiting scholar at NYU in 2017. Bittar’s 2007 seminal essay “Inside Arab Calligraphy From Alef to Zaha,“ introduces how to “read” Arabic calligraphy as architectural spaces. Other essays focus on art at the intersection of identity and history. Bittar was born in Baghdad, Iraq of Lebanese and Palestinian parents. She received her BFA at the State University of New York and her MFA at the University of California, San Diego. Bittar was the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee West Coast Coordinator for three years, San Diego chapter president for seven years, and writes opinion pieces while serving on the San Diego Union-Tribune Community Advisory Board.
