The objects we own keep memories; they hold clues about who we are and who has shaped us. In Mary Finlayson's solo exhibition Flowers on the Wall at Hashimoto Contemporary Los Angeles, the artist depicts sculptures, books, and flowers to represent loved ones and moments from her childhood in a new series of vibrant paintings and mosaics. Reflecting on her mother’s life before a dementia diagnosis, Finlayson considers how memories shape who we are and who we have been, as the objects we keep through the years pull the people and places of the past into the present.

Rich with bright, bold colors, Finlayson’s still life works are flattened, pushing her essentialized renditions of books, art posters, floor tiles, flowers, and plants up against the front of the canvas. The San Francisco-based artist often works her references into her subject matter, drawing stylistic inspiration from canonical Masters like Henri Matisse, Ellsworth Kelly, and David Hockney—each of whom has a monograph featured somewhere in this series of new works. Finlayson blends her traditional references with more obscure, personal ones, pulling stylistic inspiration from female artists and artisans like Kenojuak Ashevak and Maude Lewis, whose prints, weavings, and paintings were cast aside as “folk art” or “crafts.” Continuing her experimentation with mosaics, Finlayson openly pays homage to “craft” artists, keeping one foot in the lineage of art history and another in non-traditional experimentation and play. 

The creative force behind this new body of work is memory: how it persists in our minds, molding our understanding of ourselves and our closest relations. In the wake of her mother’s dementia diagnosis, Finlayson wondered, “How do we remember, and what is left, when we can no longer tell the stories that shape us?” Each composition in these still life works connotes a memory, a moment, or a person. The flowers, Finlayson reveals, represent her mother: “Growing up, my mother owned a flower shop and would bring home the unsold flowers and hang them from the ceiling to dry.” Finlayson would watch them transition from one stage to another echoing their prior form but forever changed. The flowers celebrate Finlayson’s time spent with her mother, immortalized in bright, joyous hues shielded from the impacts of time.

Join the gallery on Saturday, September 7th, from 6 pm - 8 pm for the opening reception of Flowers on the Wall, which will be held concurrently with Gabe Langholtz’s solo exhibition, At Arm’s Length.