Garbage is an architectural-scale series of panels that transform a gallery into a comic book. Each "page" of the story pops with colour off the wall, unfolding using the common tropes of comic books. Taken together the paintings tell the story of neighbours in Halifax's North End and a mysterious couch which shows up one morning on the narrator's front curb. As the narrator confronts his neighbours, asking where it came from, he gains insight into their lives as well as his own. Garbage collects these paintings into a graphic novel with a commentary by curator Robin Metcalfe.

Originally from Montreal, Mathew Reichertz completed his BFA at Concordia University and his MFA at NSCAD University. In 2005 Reichertz was the Eastern Canadian winner of the RBC Canadian Painting Competition and in 2006 was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award. Reichertz's interests are in the history of narrative painting and its relationship to contemporary ideas surrounding painting. In 2014 He exhibited Garbage, an architectural scale story in the form of a comic at Saint Mary's University Art Gallery. Garbage is also scheduled for exhibition at the Carlton University Art Gallery, Ottawa, in 2016. In 2006 he became a tenure track member of the Faculty at NSCAD University in Halifax where he is now an Associate Professor.

Mathew Reichertz's profile page

Robin Metcalfe has a prenatal affinity for Nova Scotia crafts — his mother met his father while she was teaching weaving in Glace Bay. Like most of the people profiled in Studio Rally, he is a self-employed cultural producer — a freelance writer and independent curator.

Robin Metcalfe's profile page