About the Work
THE WORLD OF ARN STRASSER: NEW WORK
Arn Strasser’s new paintings are a series of works that imply a collecting and cataloging of mysterious and often non-representational images and markings.
The markings are foreign, and the cataloging is in an unknown language. The pieces appear to a set of documents, or uncovered notebooks from a sort of naturalist of an unknown world, or from a mysterious undiscovered place in our world. And yet the work is of the imagination. These are field notes of an artist, not a naturalist or scientist. They are non-derivative and spontaneous. The power of the art is in this largely non-referential images, which allow the viewer to engage in a process of discovery.
What gives the pieces a special relevance to Strasser's art works is their materiality, the thickness of the paper or the construction of the board, the immediacy of the markings in inks, paints and pencil, and the obvious hand of the artist in the production of the pieces. Deliberately using no Photoshop, tracing, or magnification, and using only occasional sketches randomly found in the studio, the works are intended to be the "field work" of the artists imagination.
The artist makes immediate choices, determines order and specificity, without any pre-planned intention. The result allows the viewer to enter into what appear to be documents or notes of some kind without preconceptions in order to find meaning in the work that is personal and not fixed.
Joseph Berneson 2009