Aaron Rosenstreich/Opening Comments

I started this blog for a few reasons. One to promote my work. Two, to promote work by artists I respect. And three, to motivate myself to investigate new artists, new work, new ideas. I hope to use this space to write a concentrated review of an exhibition at least once a month. It's a given that all artists feed off of each other and so even when I speak of my own work, I am also always nodding toward my influences. In other words, myself + someone. In most situations, it is easier to define who you are not than it is to clarify who you are. I sometimes adopt the mannerisms of my favorites without even knowing it. But I am on guard when it comes to shitty artists and I do my best not to mimic them. This site inevitably will include and quote from artists I love, and will call attention to artist I am reacting against (a mixture of Wolf+ and notKinkade).

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Moving forward, I would like to start this site out with the work of Aaron Rosenstreich. Aaron is an easy choice because his work is strong, he has a current exhibition, he's a good friend, and because a name beginning with two a's moves him to the top of a lot of lists. He's used to being mentioned first.

Several photographs from his Occular Landscape series can now be seen in the exhibition Frame Line at the new Hatch Gallery in Oakland, CA. The size of the photographs serves the images and the exhibition space well. Approximately 14x11 and 22x17 inches, they were large enough for me to get into the detail captured by his large format camera. Yet they were small enough to draw me closer for an intimate experiences. I have seen some of the images printed larger in a previous exhibition and I prefer the smaller versions. It's a new phenomenon to call a 22x17 inch photograph small, but larger sizes are getting easier and easier to print (and therefore becoming the norm for many photographers).

The size of the work also allowed Aaron to hang quite a few images. I was happy to see the numerous groupings, but wish in the end that some were eliminated. I wish this so that his photographs and the work of the other artist in Frame Line, Edmund Wyss, could have initiated a stronger dialogue. Their work was not quite interspersed enough to trigger a sustained dialogue, nor was their work separated enough to allow me to divide my attention. It was somewhere in the middle, causing Edmund's work to punctuate Aaron's work (and vice versa). What I mean by this, is that Edmund's paintings merely provided the viewer with a break from Aaron's photos (and vice versa). If the show were hung with a more even distribution of the artists' work, Edmund's paintings would have acted as a response to--or a question for--Aaron's photographs. Ultimately, the show is not poorly hung. Simply, the elimination of a few images would have allowed the artists and the curator, Adam Hatch, to make a few key sequencing changes.

I would like to talk more about the work itself. Before I do though, I want to return for a second viewing of the exhibition. Until then, I want to mention a couple things to notice when you view the exhibition. One, both artists' attention to detail is worth noting--something as seemingly boring as a notched metal gear or some roadside shrubbery can prove to be monumental. Two, Edmund paints photography equipment and Aaron displays the product of these tools. It would be too simple to say this exhibition is about the process of photography. So what larger questions do the artists raise?

Frame Line
Hatch Gallery
Aaron Rosenstreich & Edmund Wyss
492 23rd Street, Oakland, CA 94612
November 7 - December 5, 2008


All images © 2008 Aaron Rosenstreich