Alexander Strecker

Alexander Strecker is a doctoral researcher in Art, Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on contemporary cultural production in Αthens, Greece, and investigates how the visual arts register the contradictions inherent in capitalism and modernity as well as the crises brought on by enduring coloniality. His work explores how these tensions have been felt acutely in Greece since 2008, but resonate worldwide. Drawing on his Greek heritage, his methodology applies practices of care and community building in order to enact, after Sedgwick, a “reparative” approach to art history.

Prior to focusing on Greece, he specialized in contemporary photography. After interviewing hundreds of artists while editing a photography magazine, he became interested in the impact of technological changes to the medium’s functioning in the past, present, and future. This included a period of research on the increasing presence of computer vision systems on photographic production, the role of non-human actors in image interpretation, and the critical examination of the supposed dematerialization of the image.

At Duke, he is part of S-1 Lab (Speculative Sensation) and the Laboratory for Social Choreography. He has presented his research at the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (SLSA), transmediale, and the École normale supérieure in Paris. He has collaborated with various arts organizations across Europe, including the Οnassis Foundation, ARTWORKS, Αthens Photo Festival, VOID, Kunst Haus Wien, Paris Photo, Art Basel, as well as Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach Project.

Strecker received a BA in English from Amherst College in 2013. Before going to Duke, he lived in Paris and Αthens for several years while working as a magazine editor and photography critic.

In spring 2021, as writer-in-residence at Οnassis AiR, he was the editor of the book 'While We’re Together', which is part of the four-volume publication “The School of Infinite Rehearsals: Movements I-IV”.

Alexander Strecker is a participant of The School of Infinite Rehearsals of Οnassis AiR 2020-21.