Leuven - Museum M - Robert Devriendt | Matthew Brannon

ROBERT DEVRIENDT - VICTIMES OF PASSION
October 8, 2010 – January 16, 2011

Robert Devriendt (born in 1955) makes small paintings. The depicted fragments are combined in order to tell the spectators an intimate story. Each set suggests a subjective, open story, often with a certain tension or sexual overtone, as if they were stills from a movie. Devriendt's stories are an answer to what images from everyday reality mean.They deal with the longing we have for stories. The illusory quality of the paintings is an important aspect of his investigation of the way images operate. In M Devriendt exhibits a number of new series, as well as a selection of old work.

MATTHEW BRANNON - MOUSE TRAP, LIGHT SWITCH
October 8 - December 5, 2010

Matthew Brannon (°1971, New York) gets inspired by everyday objects and disposable items such as take-out-menus, advertisements and posters, as well as slips-of-the-tongue and overheard conversations. Elements from these mass-produced sources are reworked in own designs and artworks, using more traditional or labour intensive techniques such as letterpress or screen printing. His compositions combine recognizable images with poetic fragments. Brannon has created an inventive visual language which the observer can easily recognize independent of the material medium. At first glance, his work always conveys an elegance but there still is a sense of danger behind the cultivated surface. His spatial installations are much like the scene of a crime in a noir film, where familiar objects are arranged in mysterious configurations. His works conjure up the modern metropolis, such as airports, hotels and impersonal public spaces and invite the viewer to find new meanings to familiar elements.
Mouse Trap, Light, Switch is the second and revised configuration of the exhibition, formerly titled, Reservations from the Ursula Blickle Stiftung curated by Daniel Birnbaum. In January of 2011 a third manifestation will take place at the Portikus, in Frankfurt.

More information:
www.mleuven.be