Halifax artist Mathew Reichertz was the 2006 Atlantic Canada nominee for the Sobey Art Award. This past fall the 2006 Sobey Art Award Exhibition, presented by Scotiabank, was mounted at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. On view for the first time there was Reichertz’s ambitious new work The Fight. This series of seven large paintings continues Reichertz’s interest in the investigation of time and narrative. The source material for The Fight were a series of photographs featuring Reichertz and a friend engaging in an ongoing, mock battle, using various Halfiax locations as the setting for their conflict. Each of the seven painting features several different scenes, quoting both film and early Renaissance painting in his use of multiple scenes, depicting the passage of time, within the same “frame.”
Mathew Reichertz received a BFA with distinction from Concordia University in 1993 and MFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 1999. Most recently, Mathew was the Eastern Canadian award winner for the RBC painting prize in 2005 which showed in Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver and Ottawa; his work was featured in a three-person exhibition at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Art Gallery, Memorial University called Reichertz, Wadden, Wiebe in Corner Brooke NFLD; and his recent solo project Romanian Debacle showed at the Khyber Centre for the Arts and Struts Gallery in Sackville NB. Along with his active studio practice, Mathew teaches painting and drawing at NSCAD University in Halifax. The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will be acquiring this series of works through purchase and a donation by the artist.
