Paintings by Michael Cadieux

The Gallery at 40 Main is concluding 2025 with a special presentation: Paintings by Michael Cadieux.

Born at the start of World War II, a young Cadieux witnessed firsthand the destruction of Montana’s fantastically rugged wilderness, an experience that altered him as much as the landscape. Soon a mid-20s Cadieux took up position training students at the Kansas City Art Institute, a position that exposed him to New York artists via Thomas Hart Benton’s former influence at the school.

After spending time in New York City, including visits to the notorious Expressionist hotbed Max’s Kansas City, Cadieux found his way to Bisbee in 1975 during a creative flood descending upon the dying mining town and art colony in the making, although he began exhibiting in Arizona as early as 1966, first in Yuma before Phoenix and Tucson.

From Bisbee, where he bought a home two weeks after arriving, Cadieux exhibited widely between the ’70s and late ’90s, showing throughout the Southwest as part of Bisbee in Santa Fe, Bisbee in Silver City, the Bisbee Seven in Phoenix and the traveling Eight Bisbee Artists.

Cadieux also published theory and critique in numerous outlets, most notably the New Art Examiner.

60 years after graduating from the University of Montana, Missoula with an MA in painting, the 86-year old Cadieux isn’t finished making a statement.

“The majority of my paintings (the Nova Totem Landscapes) express my anger and heartbreak at the despoliation of the land.”

An expression that isn’t going out of style any time soon.

Paintings by Michael Cadieux also includes a selection of works by local painter and musician Derren Crosby, who will perform at the opening. Exhibit runs to January 3rd.

Visit mcadieux.com and mahavia.com for more information.

Image: Baby Buddha, oil on canvas.