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 Mercadante Eckert is a curator and multi-discipline artist. Her art practice originates from material culture. Narratives emerge and expand in non-linear explorations sourced through memory myth, ancestry, loss, and longing, weaving between personal and socio-political themes.
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.
