An installation artist and painter of cartoonish abstraction, his themes are centered on "travel, tourism, globalization and urbanism". Franz Ackermann was born in Germany and works from a studio in Berlin.

He attended the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Munich from 1984-1988 and the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg from 1989-1991.

His first major series, "Mental Maps" are small watercolors of the great cities of Asia, South America and Australia and were created during a visit to Hong Kong. They combine "the factual precision of traditional street maps with his own interpretation of the local environment." Often there is a dual interpretation of tourism with a downside that speaks to the shallo...