Contingence for Beginners

Barbara Seiler is pleased to present ‘Contingence for Beginners’, a joint presentation by Marijn van Kreij and Nickel van Duijvenboden in which they wonder what it means to be connected with others and each other through their work. The wish to exhibit together emanates from their ongoing correspondence, and can be seen as a celebration of affinities as well as differences. Considered as a letter of sorts, a work may be a means to address, summon or involve the other person, and this needn’t be limited to intimates. In this case, the dialogues extend in multiple directions, whereby art and friendship serve as a way to sustain them and make them visual.

The multifaceted work of Marijn van Kreij (1978 in Middelrode, NL) often takes existing imagery, texts and music as a starting point to consider their meaning when utilized in a new, carefully constructed, highly personal setting. Departing from the belief that art is made in reaction to art and in recognition of art, making contact with other artists or musicians forms a crucial part of his practice. This contact may vary from simply using a fragment of a Paul Klee painting – which is than reproduced in paint and repeated over a large sheet of paper – to getting in touch with fellow artists for a joint project. The common denominator within all his endeavours is a search for a dialogical functioning of art.

Nickel van Duijvenboden (1981 in Amsterdam, NL) explores the possibility of a writerly artist practice. By tracing acts of daily communication, mainly letters and emails and the small gestures of sending and receiving, he hopes to make these exchanges tangible and gain an understanding of the conditions of reciprocity. A correspondence – in its dual meaning – clearly attests to a relationship, but as a form of writing and addressing it also places the other at a distance and amplifies this otherness. Nickel’s ongoing exploration of this subject, intimate and sometimes precarious to the point of humiliation, is augmented with a strong delight in language, reproductive techniques and spatial arrangements – as means of transformation.

Marijn van Kreij lives and works in Amsterdam. He studied at AKV St. Joost, Breda and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam in 2005 and 2006. ‘Contingence for Beginners’ marks his third exhibition with the gallery, after participating in the inaugural group exhibition in 2010 and his solo exhibition ‘According to Klee the Artist Should Create Like Nature’ in 2014, where he combined paintings on paper, wall sized collages, text fragments and music in an all-encompassing installation.
Nickel van Duijvenboden lives and works in Amsterdam. After earning his bachelor’s degree in photography in 2003 at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, he established a writing practice that erupted from an initial rejection of the visual. His work now comprises printed matter, reading performances and photography as well as writing. He recently completed his residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.