Lothar Osterburg

Pamela Salisbury Gallery’s historic Carriage House is a seasonal space that is usually closed during the winter months. This winter, however, Lothar Ostberburg responds to lower temperatures by creating work that speaks thematically and physically to the cold weather. Winterwunderkammer is a work in progress and is subject to change throughout its duration.

The Carriage House installation includes Ostberburg’s photographs of small-scale setups that reimagine memories and dreams using the 19th century photomechanical process of copperplate photogravure. The soft focus, scratches, and traces from the photogravure process, along with the use of roughly made models creates a world which hovers somewhere between the real and the imaginary.

Lothar Osterburg is a German-born, New York-based artist and master printer in intaglio, who works in sculpture, photography, printmaking and video. He is best known for photogravures featuring rough small-scale models of rustic structures, water and air vessels, and imaginary cities, staged in evocative settings and photographed to appear life-size to disorienting, mysterious or whimsical effect. New York Times critic Grace Glueck writes that Osterburg’s rich-toned, retro prints “conjur[e] up monumental phenomena by minimal means”; Judy Pfaff describes his work as thick with film noir–like atmosphere, warmth, reverie, drama and timelessness.