Duotone - Bert Frings en Gyz La Rivière

The role of man in his environment is the starting point for the exhibition 'Duotone' by two Rotterdam artists. Both investigate the way in which man relates to his environment, resulting in a dialogue between very diverse work from different media and techniques.

Bert Frings uses still lifes to explore the relationship between man, nature and consumer society, while Gyz La Rivière focuses on the influence of urban environments and media on society. Both integrate everyday objects into their work. La Rivière incorporates found objects, archive images and collecting mania into his installations, readymades and films, while Frings draws inspiration from seventeenth-century vanitas still lifes with transience and inevitable death as themes. Frings uses these themes to make the viewer reflect on the transience of existence and the beauty that lies within it. By using egg tempera on panel, a traditional painting technique that dates back to the Middle Ages, he adds historical depth to his painting. La Rivière investigates the transience of media and technology: dead media and retrofuturism. His oeuvre includes film, installations, graphic work, video art, neon works and publications. He is an idiosyncratic image archivist, working in the tension between restlessness and boredom, emptiness and abundance. He rules over his collection of visual puzzle pieces, which illuminate 'reality' from a different angle each time. From the idea of constantly trying to reinvent yourself in an ever-changing world. With new and existing images, objects from museum collections and his own archive, he forges a story that sharpens our view of the world around us in unexpected ways.