MATT BAHEN WAS ONCE ONLY
IMAGINED
March 2nd – March 28th, 2024
WasOnceOnlyImaginedtakesits exhibition title from the English poet and printmaker William Blake’s visionary book, TheMarriageofHeavenandHell: “What is now proved was once only imagined.”
A voracious reader, literary sources are the foundation of Bahen’s practice. He consumes everything from landmarks of classical literature and poetry to staples of popular culture. The paintings in WasOnceOnly Imaginedtake inspiration from a variety of genres, including the writings of playwright Anton Chekhov, the world of Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Bahen’s recurrent inspiration Cormac McCarthy.
“Istrivetointerpretthepowerofmetaphorandallegory inthelandscapesIpaint.Whiletheworkmayevokea particularplace,they’recompositesoflocationsI imaginewhilereadingbooks,orsectionstakenfrommy ownandothersourcematerial.Iwanttoallowthe viewerroomtoenterthepaintingswiththeirown interpretations.”
- Matt Bahen Matt Bahen AllThingsAreFragileandMustBeCaredFor , 2023 oil on canvas 60 x 66 in. $ 14,000.00
Matt Bahen
TheOrderofWitness,butThereareManyWhoWitness , 2024 oil on canvas 60 x 66 in.
$ 14,000.00
Matt Bahen
And at the Summit a Voice , 2023
oil on canvas
34 x 36 in.
$ 8,000.00
Matt Bahen
Tree of the Twelve Fruits , 2024 oil on canvas 72 x 78 in.
$ 16,000.00
Matt Bahen’s choice of oil paint as his medium, as well as his application of it, have come to define his practice. Bahen wields his brush in a way that emphasizes the materiality of his surfaces. He is a “painter’s painter”, akin to Kiefer and Freud, layering the surfaces of his canvases with intentional, thickly impastoed brushstrokes.
Matt Bahen AnImperfectSymmetry , 2024 oil on canvas 26 1/2 x 31 in. $ 7,000.00
Matt Bahen
Out of the Mountains , 2023 oil on canvas
48 x 54 in. $ 12,000.00
Matt Bahen
He Came to Believe , 2023 oil on canvas
30 x 36 in.
$ 8,000.00
Matt Bahen was born in 1979 in Toronto, and was raised in Schomberg, Ontario. He received his BFA from the Ontario College of Art in 2002. Bahen is represented in Toronto, Edmonton, and New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario College of Art and Design, Canadian National Landscaping Association, BMO Financial Group, CIBC, and various fnancial institutions.
In 2013, his solo exhibition, Gravity'sFaith , was held at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie. In 2022, Bahen had a solo exhibition at the Glenhyrst Art Gallery in Brantford, Ontario. A new exhibition of his work, ComingDowntheMountain, opens at The McIntosh Gallery at Western University on April 1st, 2024.