"The last rays of sunlight skim the surface of a marshy lake in Matt Bahen’s painting. Only faint traces of green linger in the silhouettes of reeds piercing the water. One senses that if we were to turn away from Save for the Light, even briefly, the landscape would descend into impenetrable darkness.
This feeling of twilight —the sense of standing at the edge of a world about to change — permeates Bahen’s new series. His paintings draw on legends, myths, epic poems, and fairy tales in which a lone hero or heroine ventures into the unknown: the depths of a forest, a storm-tossed sea, a realm from which there is no easy return.
By evocatively titling his exhibition The Crossing, Bahen invokes the ideas of one of his favourite authors, the mythologist Joseph Campbell. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell described “Crossing the First Threshold” as the decisive moment when the hero leaves the familiar world and overcomes perilous adventures. It is a symbolic passage — one that ultimately makes renewal and transformation possible.
Ultimately, Bahen places his trust in enduring cycles and timeless legends. “That’s why I keep going back to storytelling – to literature and narrative – as a way of navigating the world,” he says. “That’s what holds us together; that’s how we make sense of our lives.” This faith infuses his work, offering viewers both quiet reassurance and strength to face turbulent times."
Excerpt from the essay At the Threshold: Where Myth Becomes Image, written by Agnieszka Matejko.
