Tricked! Maurice Scheltens & Liesbeth Abbenes' beautiful game of illusion at Galerie Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam

The appearance: antique silver chalices with a fine ornamentation, a beaming cold outer skin from times of great prestige. The truth: a simple bricolage made of reflecting plastic and metal, which mirrors the common patterns of curtain fabrics, yet it still manages to fascinate.

Maurice Scheltens and Liesbeth Abbenes play with the photographic possibilities of the illusion. Although they may be trying to trick us, their exhibition ‘Detail in Reverse’ at the Gallery Martin van Zomeren in Amsterdam still deserves a visit.

The artists' recipe is simple: they adore the process of creating mirages. They create still lifes from cheap, worthless materials, which become objects of value through the precise choice of ingredients and the camera's patient lens.

Scheltens and Abbenes show wondrous pictures, but a false beauty; almost as we know it and have grown to be accustomed to, yet without Photoshop. Otherwise it simply wouldn’t be art.

Maurice Scheltens & Liesbeth Abbenes –
Detail in Reverse
Gallery Martin van Zomeren
Prinsengracht 276 hs
1016 HJ Amsterdam

6th of November – 18th of December 2010
Med – Sat, 1pm – 6pm