Kristin Osterberg
“Memories: Not My Own”
New York, 547 West 27th Street
Osterberg sifts through boxes and albums of old photos to find points of departure. Naively, often clumsily shot, they embody a certain authenticity nonetheless. People dimly recalled. Unidentifiable places occupied by siblings, parents, and grandparents. Forgotten childhood events. They’re springboards into an uncanny gallery of familiar and strange, remembered and forgotten, distinct and blurred.
Osterberg’s moody, painterly approach sets itself against the insta-compositions of social media. She edits and reimagines. She leaves faces unclear. She invents color palettes. She picks up on implications beyond the photographer’s intentions. These might be images from any family’s past. Her paintings seem to ask, “Remember this?” and invite the response, “Yes. Maybe.”
