statement

This new body of work explores the rich surfaces contained within formal and botanic gardens and sets them within the stage of the constructed landscape. Using a variety of camera formats from pinhole cameras to an iPhone the works investigates formal arrangements of hedgerows, topiary, vistas, glass house conservatories and garden walls.

Gardens present themselves as fully staged realities, artificial yet seemingly natural; photographing them becomes a complicated exercise in seeing and observing. My goal in making these images is to participate in the landscape from an experiential perspective in which I collect fragments of these elaborately constructed worlds: a topiary cone presents itself as textural overlay on the hedgerow behind it, a wisteria vine becomes a sinuous line on the picture plane, mold blooms on a garden wall, a fern kisses the glass of its conservatory. I intentionally seek to avoid the common garden photographic viewpoint, which is usually to view it from an aerial perspective to show the garden architecture or to focus on an individual plant. Instead I seek to capture the textures, light and totemic shapes of the garden experience through its varied and variegated surfaces.

bio

born: 1968, Indianapolis, Indiana

education

Ohio University, MFA, 1993
Herron School of Art, BFA, 1991

selected awards/honors

Italian Cultural Institute of Louisville Grant, 2013
Paducah Artist in Residence, 2013
Kentucky Arts Coucil Professional Assistance Award, 2007
Purchase Award, Butler Institute of American Art, 2004

selected publications

International Photography Annual v.1, Cincinnati, Ohio, Manifest Press p 72, 2012
Dialogue/Object: A Retrospective of Still Life's by Mitch Eckert, Exhibition Catalogue, University of Louisville, 2011
Photography NOW!, Cengage Learning, 2010
Experienceing Art Around Us, Thomoson Learning, 2005

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Surface: New Landscapes by Mitch Eckert, Cressman Center for Visual Arts, Louisville, Kentucky, 2014
Salt: Photographs by Mitch Eckert and Laura Hartford, McGrath Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky, 2013
Mitch Eckert: Dialogue/Object, Cressman Center for Visual Arts, Louisville, Kentucky, 2011
Translations/Transitions: Photographs by Mitch Eckert, Zephyr Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky, 2008

selected group shows

Second Life, Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts, Louisville, Kentucky, 2014
iPhoneography: Updated Visual Dialogs, The Lunch Box Gallery, Miami, Florida, 2012
Illusion, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado, 2012
The Death of Childhood, 21c. Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, 2010