Jeff Nachtigall

Mesmerizing and defiantly folksy paintings challenge Canadiana nostalgia.

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We live in a country as vast and beautiful as it is harsh. The land is varied and inhabited by myriad creatures, both large and small. We take pride in our ability to both endure and harness these conditions, which ultimately shape our identities in particular ways within each region.

Inspired by the Prairie winter, Barrhead Supersonic, on view at Jarvis Hall Gallery in Calgary until April 30, is a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Jeff Nachtigall. Born in 1970 in Yorkton, Sask., he recently returned to the province after living in Toronto and Montreal for several years. He had planned to visit family before embarking on residencies in Barcelona, Istanbul and Budapest. However, a massive heart attack and the global pandemic forced him to pivot. 

He moved to a three-season cabin on Last Mountain Lake, northwest of Regina, where he painted from dawn to dusk in an abandoned building. Eventually, he rented a 6,000-square-foot space in a warehouse, where he continued to produce paintings in a range of sizes. 

This tumultuous period marked a shift in his practice away from the bustling vibes of city life to more personal contemplations amidst the isolated thrum of his rural life. Nachtigall says the pandemic forced him inwards both mentally and physically, as he realized there was no longer much benefit to living in a large city.  “A lifestyle that afforded one access to opportunities has been hampered by closures … there’s no advantage of living in downtown Montreal or Toronto when you can’t meet gallerists and curators or other artists or attend artist talks or go to openings.” As the scene moved online, geography no longer seemed to matter. “A cabin in Saskatchewan is no longer isolated … at least not in the same way it was before the pandemic.”

His work from this period is not easily categorized. Bringing together real and imagined views, it is rife with contradictions, both thematic and material. Vibrant red, orange and yellow hues are set against black or muted greens. Quirky narratives juxtapose playfulness, danger and the mundane. 

Anyone who has driven Saskatchewan’s highways is familiar with the province's vast spreads of grasslands and forests. And, of course, the spectacular skies cannot be denied. However, in Nachtigall’s paintings, they are personified and electrified with vibrant neons, as well as overtly stylized approaches and humorous references to Canadian pop culture, including playful renditions of bears, trees and pick-up trucks. 

He draws from a wide range of inspirations and packs his work with references to graffiti, pop culture and modernism, while borrowing from art brut, outsider art, German expressionism and neo-expressionism. Although his landscapes burst with Canadiana nostalgia, these references mash up in new and curious ways, magnifying underlying tensions. 

Each painting sports various techniques and media, whether spray paint, airbrush, expressive brush work with acrylic paint or stencil-like passages meticulously  masked using painter’s tape. For example, in Your Dog's Not Smart Like Me, a wolf is brutishly yet exquisitely rendered in spray paint that's overlaid with bugged-out eyes and a lopsided tongue, all added with acrylic paint. The ground is littered with beer bottles. Is the narrative about the mischievousness of nature’s creatures or is it a playful, yet loaded, commentary on human folly and irresponsibility? 

Nachtigall avoids three-dimensional perspective, creating a refreshing depth through an intricate layering of lines, shapes and textures. His frontal expression, which initially reads as flat, thus yields a surprising depth on closer examination. For instance, frolicking deer or lumbering bears strategically placed amongst trees open the picture plane.

The work connects with themes related to boundaries, exploring, among other things, where the real world ends and imaginative or fictional space begins. It is mesmerizing, otherworldly and defiantly folksy, as Nachtigall confronts viewers with both the whimsical and the mundane.

Another wonderful thing about this exhibition, beyond the paintings themselves, is the gallery’s online portal to Nachtigall’s studio, which offers glimpses of new works in progress. A pandemic innovation, the portal provides insight into how artists work and the spaces they inhabit while creating. I hope it endures after the pandemic. ■  

Jeff Nachtigall: Barrhead Supersonic at Jarvis Hall Gallery in Calgary from March 26 to April 30, 2021.

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