It could be a superfluous title for an art show since it’s quite obvious that an art gallery puts art on display. However, for this particular show the word carries a much larger significance. Here “display” refers specifically to spatial objects for the promotion of a product or an event. Today the word in question quite often denominates these three-dimensional constructions employed in the commercial context of the business enterprise, the street, or the landscape in general. But while these objects are very frequently used in publicity campaigns, they are uncommon to the world of painting, to say the least.
 
Both Marcel Berlanger and Thomas Huyghe already came to enjoy some fame for their adventurous attitude towards the tradition of figurative painting. In their recent work both of them take this even one step further. Only the use of paint and paintbrush still ties them to painting as a medium. Next to this they boldly take their works into the third dimension and explore the stretch of their spatial possibilities. They choose the basis to be constructions made of industrial materials. As such the paintings become three-dimensional figurative pieces in which the surrounding space comes to play a meaningful part.
 
Their recent development towards a spatial oeuvre brings these two painters together – besides this their work shows many differences. Berlanger prefers to work with mostly black paint, while Huyghe makes an exuberant use of colour. Berlanger takes to scientifically still images; Huyghe on the other hand is fascinated by the speedy pictures of the advertising world. Nonetheless, both of them try to give the tradition of figurative painting its place within today’s imagery-based society without becoming prey to melancholy dramatics or superficial virtuosity.
 
 
Jan De Nys, July, 2006