Toronto-based painter Matt Bahen is known for his thick impasto paintings, which have many layers of interpretation. Influenced by literature, primarily the writings of fiction authors such as Cormac McCarthy, T.S Eliot, and Joseph Conrad, Bahen aspires to emulate the power of metaphors and allegories with paint. Bahen does not consider his subject landscape in the traditional sense; his viewpoint is not one that we see in nature, but rather skirts the balance between real and imagined in a way that leaves the viewer to decipher. This inherent tension and uncertainty typifies his work.
I actually have two exhibitions with this body of work, one at Nicholas Metivier Gallery here in Toronto called “Was Once Only Imagined” which runs from March 2-28, and another “Coming Down the Mountain” at the McIntosh Galley at Western University in London Ontario running April 1- June 1.
