This piece is from a series of works by Nick Ostoff that explore how impressions of recognizable spaces (places) are controlled and shaped by memory and absence.

Ostoff based this painting on an old family photograph taken at a ski hill. In translating the photograph to paint he removed all of the skiers and foreground activity, leaving an empty winter landscape. This omission is powerful. It generates a strong sense of absence. By blurring details, working in gray scale, and exagerating contrasts Ostoff heightened the sense of absence. These painterly methods effectively evoke what Ostoff has called the “de-familiarizing effects of memory.”