Dirk was born, raised, and educated in Germany, where he studied drawing, printmaking, photography, and painting at the Folkwang School of Fine Arts. He graduated with a masters degree and since the early 1980s has lived in the United States.
In his art, old and new techniques and ideas compliment each other. Working in new directions, he constantly finds himself drawing historic, geographic, political and artistic connections to the past. Old processes like woodcut and etching are married with photo intaglio and fax machine. Influences from German Expressionism meet the sensibilities of line and space of the Far East. New ideas refer to old concepts and the only constant is the interpretation of what we see in terms of delineation. Above all, everything is about drawing:
We reduce the world to two dimensions and lines. However, because of this reduction, in our best moments, art is capable of revealing some of its lasting truth and beauty.
