Aaron Chang Ocean Art Gallery — Attraction in Carmel-by-the-Sea

While on a romantic getaway in Carmel-by-the-Sea this last weekend, my darling and I spotted Aaron's gallery as we walked down Ocean Avenue toward the beach. We couldn't help being drawn in, as if by a tractor beam, after catching glimpses of Aaron's mind-blowing, large format images through the front door. Aaron's inspiring work is far beyond simply extraordinary... his images perch on a razor's edge between abstraction, pure form and color, and his deeply informed experience as a photographer of the ocean. Aaron has taken his hard won early years as a Surfer magazine photographer and, through his own insightful vision, evolved his work from pure realistic reporting into fine art that transcends his subject. Whether it is a triptych meditation on the form, light, and color of a breaking translucent wave... or swirling sea foam... or jelly-fish-shaped half spheres of rising bubbles in an aquamarine sea... there is something transformational in Aaron's work that rises above a love for the ocean. His work with undulating gradients of ribboned color that, at first, appear to be an abstract impressionistic study... suddenly morph into a carefully chosen wide-angle study of a section of sunrise. His close observations of light through waves, taken within and right next to these giants, evokes a range of emotion that is startling, familiar, enlightening, deeply calming, insightful, and terribly exciting... all within any one piece. Both my darling and I were moved by many of Aaron's pieces. Fortunately, Aaron happened to be at the gallery during our visit, and took time to chat with us about the arc of his artistic journey, his current projects, and those up ahead. His work and personal story are a fascinating reflection of this very good and very talented man. I highly recommend a visit to see Aaron...

We are so happy with the pieces we purchased I had to sit down and write a review.

My wife and I have been looking for three years for two of the main walls in our house and what to put on them. We happened upon some of Aaron Chang’s photos online. We both loved them. We live in Arizona but had the opportunity to visit the studio and see all of the different options. Really cool experience. We went from looking at one piece and ended up getting two. We went with the art on the metal and matte finish. I never knew a metal presentation could look so stunning. Our favorite is silver palms and is even better when seeing it in person.

Here’s where I feel the 5 star review is deserved. Not only are the pieces beautiful but the service exceeded it. Thank you Andy for all your time working with us. I am probably too picky and Andy has been great. Always quick to respond and took the time to show us so many different pieces and sizes on photos from our home on top of FaceTime calls and emails and so on. Something I highly recommend is to try out sending pictures of the spot where you are thinking of and they can add a picture of how it will look. We went through so many different options virtually and it was so easy and so so helpful.

Thank you Andy, Aaron and everyone else that helped...

My 11 year-old became enthralled with the picture of waves in the window & made us go in. Stunning is all I can say & some of the most gorgeous shots we have ever seen. We purchased an ethereal metal photograph of the night sky at Long Lake in the Sierras. My husband recognized it because it is was where he first worked as a geologist. We all loved it & will hang it in our mountain home in Winter Park hopefully giving all of our guests a time to reflect on nature’s beauty. My young son remarked how he felt Aaron really loved what he was doing as he cheerily helped us with our purchase. We hope to purchase another...