Ali Eckert German/American, b. 1963

German American artist Ali Eckert grew up within two cultures, which underscores his art practice. His work is strongly influenced by American imagery and pop cultural elements, and he explores various iconography to reflect its ongoing cultural transition. Eckert’s unique analog process combines photography, digital artistry, and painting. He stages and photographs his subjects –such as iconic everyday objects or roadside scenes –and creates hyper-realistic composite images. He then manually transfers his images to canvas, wood, or aluminum, accentuated with textured painting techniques. The effect is a nostalgic vision of the American Dream that appears cracked and eroded.

Eckert works between his studios in Berlin and Wisconsin. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Wiesbaden, Germany, and after a career in film directing, he turned to visual art in 2007. Eckert has exhibited in numerous presentations in the USA and Germany, aswell as in Switzerland, Hungary, and China. He has received several international awards, and his works are notably held by the Sander Collection (Basel), the Zagoras Collection (Athens), the Neumann-Hug Collection (St. Urban), and the German Art Fund Hungary, among others.