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Born in 1959 in Los Angeles, California, Kamal Al Mansour graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles
in 1981 with a degree in political science. In 1984, Al Mansour graduated from the University of California, Hastings
College of the Law in San Francisco with a Juris Doctorate degree. Almost 30 years after he began college as an art
major, Al Mansour had his first solo exhibition in 2005 at La Petite Gallery in Los Angeles. Although Al Mansour
relocated from Los Angeles to northern California in 2005, his work was featured in group and juried exhibitions in
Los Angeles in 2005 and 2006.
In 2007, Al Mansour established himself as a Bay Area artist of note with work on exhibit during the 11th Annual The
Art of Living Black (San Pablo Art Gallery, Richmond Art Center & Prescott-Joseph Center), Joyce Gordon Gallery
in downtown Oakland (CA), Esteban Sabar Gallery in Oakland, as well as Stanford University, his first exhibition at a
college or university.
The beginning of 2008 will mark another first for Al Mansour when he opens in New Power Generation 2008 at Hampton University
Museum, as his first museum exhibition. He will also seek to broaden his audience with several exhibitions planned in cities
on the East Coast.
Al Mansour's draftsmanship of narrative figurative realism is influenced by master draftsmen Charles White and Richard
Wyatt, while his use of assemblage and collage is partly influenced by the Los Angeles assemblage movement of the 1960s
and 70s of which African American artists were at the center. Al Mansour also incorporates digital art in his
compositions. In combining these genres, Al Mansour has created a singular style, which defies categorization, yet is both
cutting-edge and traditional. Al Mansour's early career as the founder and president of AfroLink® Software,
which created the first Afrocentric interactive multimedia software, continues to strongly influence his aesthetic and
thematic approach (i.e., graphic interface and rich content).
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