Florian & Michael Quistrebert

With Florian & Michael Quistrebert’s fifth exhibition at the Galerie Crevecoeur, can be found once more the essential elements of their painting, which this duo has been developing for over 10 years: the use of materials which are not specific to the history of painting, the search for a primitive form of light, a saturation of the formal definitions of painting (format, materials, colour) leading to an exploration in each new series of paintings of an experience of the de-materialisation of paint.

Here, they are presenting two new series of paintings and a new video installation, deployed by four monitors.

The pieces in the Ruined series prolong the Overlight series while introducing a supplementary radicality. They have been produced by applying with laser or mirrored coat with epoxy on panels of wood which have been treated with random undercoats of car-body paint. The optical perfection of the infinite reflections of the laser or mirrored coat (creating a kaleidoscopic effect) thus breaks with the variously uneven effects of the material that had initially been applied to the wood, creating a rupture and expressionistic disturbance via its optical radicality.

The collages, which are apparently haunted by the Bleach series (bleach on canvas, 2009-2012), are assemblages of whitened canvases and plain hessian, stuck and stapled onto wooden panels. The distinctly matt look of the canvas acts as a counterpoint to the High series, while keeping up a vivid contrast between an irradiated light and an uneven surface. The LEDs participate as luminous intruders, breaking up the smooth look of the canvas.

The video installation, intentionally displayed on four monitors in the space, is a dance of death that extends the visual charge of these two series of paintings thanks to its distinctly spectral cathode light.

By bringing together new materials in original combinations of matter, Florian and Michael Quistrebert have created a succession of nerve-wracking, subjective disturbances tending towards a potential depiction of infinity.