Ontario Juried Exhibition 2025

Juror: Matt Bahen

Exhibition Dates: October 15, 2025 - January 04, 2026

Opening Reception: Friday, October 17, 2025 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Juror Talk and Tour Saturday, October 18, 2025 | 1:00 - 2:00 PM

Art and Wine: Wednesday, October 22, 2025 | 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Participating Artists: Aiesha Baig, Norman Barney, Viktoria Brave, David Fife, Daisy Fresh, Stephen Gibb, Lucy Erskine, Bernie Hrytzak, Calvin Kellendonk, Rachel Kochistry, Jonathan Leopold, Edward Marlatt, Adam Matak, Frank Myers, Patti Randazzo Beckett, Firouzeh Saremi Far, Jaqueline Silva, Laura Wagner

The Ontario Juried Exhibition showcases artistic innovation and excellence from across Ontario.

This year saw a record-breaking response with 250 artworks submitted by 108 artists. Guest juror Matt Bahen, a Toronto-based artist who has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally, had the challenging task of selecting the artworks that have been included in the exhibit

About the Juror

Matt Bahen is an artist living and working in Toronto. Bahen’s primary influence is literature. Using an impasto technique of thick oil paint, he strives to interpret the power of metaphor and allegory with paint. The textured surfaces of the works and stark compositions are at once unsettling and highly engaging. Using various including water, fire and animals, Bahen constructs individual narratives that remain in a state of perpetual tension. Most recently Bahen has been working on series of landscape paintings utilizing the literary device of the enchanted forest as metaphor for our changing climate.

Matt Bahen was born in 1979 in Toronto. He received his BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design University in 2002. In 2013 his exhibition Gravity’s Faith was held at the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, In 2022 his exhibition There is Something Happening in the Valley was held at the Glenhyrst Art Gallery in Brantford Ontario, in 2024 his exhibition Coming Down the Mountain was held at the MacIntosh Gallery at Western University London Ontario. Bahen is represented in Toronto by Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Edmonton by Peter Robertson Gallery and by Claire Oliver Gallery in New York.