Biography
Samantha M. Eckert was born in Glen Cove, NY and raised in Brownsville, VT. She lived in New Mexico for many years and returned to Vermont in 2012. Eckert earned her MFA in Visual Art in 2015 from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT; a bachelor’s from Vermont College of Norwich University, Montpelier, VT; and a Certificate in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM. She has attended several artist residencies including, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass, CO; Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; La Macina di San Cresci, Greve, Chianti, Italy; and was a two-time artist in residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA. Eckert has exhibited in MA, NH, NM, VT, and Italy. She is a Vermont-based emerging artist.
(Shown in photo with crocheted textile made by her grandmother, Antonietta Aloi Mercadante)
Artist Statement
Samantha M. Eckert is a multiple discipline/conceptual artist. Her practice is sourced through materiality; narratives emerge and expand in non-linear explorations. Materials are selected to articulate process and labor, form, and implication. Eckert is deeply influenced by her Italian heritage and handcrafted objects made by her mother and grandmother. Through their legacy, she explores memory myth, ancestry, loss, and longing, weaving between personal and political themes.
“The plasticky bright colors of the process paintings in my mind reference toys, specifically Playschool figures and Lego pieces. Process painting is about interaction with the medium and reacting viscerally. And, it's about letting go and losing control and getting lost. I am interested in shape, surface, and texture. In my mind, contemporary paintings are transformed into sculptural objects.”
“The scorched popsicle stick towers are intended to reference bones. Whether that be bones of ancestors or bones of architecture, I waver. As towers, inherently they represent hegemonic masculine systems, the pun of the popcicle stick redirects dominance. Cast shadow drawings are ephemeral, suggesting what once was, as a day slipping into dusk, or a memory.” –Samantha M. Eckert
