SHANNON FINLEY | 26 JUNE - 15 AUGUST 2025

"Finley’s painterly strategy achieves spectacular impact, with no need to make effusive gestures. It defines a space without overwhelming it. His is a manner of painting that restricts itself to fundamental elements and derives from them an abundant wealth of expression. . . The longer one contemplates these pictures, the more intensively they begin to glow and the more painterly qualities they come to reveal."

- Sebastian Preuss in "Power Plants of Colors"

"Beneath the top layer of every picture are five, ten, sometimes even more layers. Finley’s process is meticulous. Completing a painting can take three to five months. The initial forms, which are developed digitally as a rule, are masked; the paints are applied with a palette knife. (He uses brushes for retouching only.) Finley photographs each completed layer. Then, at the computer, he explores various possibilities for how things can proceed further with respect to color and form. He then returns to the canvas, does the preliminary masking, and paints in an analogue manner. When he completes the new layer, he engages in further digital examination and experimentation, then resumes the analogue painting."

- Sebastian Preuss in "Power Plants of Colors"

"'My focus is on finding a language that functions for everyone,' says Finley. Thus, his pictures grant viewers the freedom to look and think, a salutary prerogative in an art world that is increasingly dominated by multiple obsessive discourses."

- Sebastian Preuss in "Power Plants of Colors"

SHANNON FINLEY (b. 1974 in Ontario, Canada) studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Arts and Science, New York, NY.

Finley has been the subject of solo exhibitions most recently at Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin, Germany; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Walter Storms Galerie, Munich, Germany; Kunthaus Kaufbeuren, Kaufbeuren, Germany; Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL; Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX; Culture Circle Gallery, Hamburg, Germany; Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Vladimir Restoin Roitfield, New York, NY; MARUANI MERCIER, Brussels, Belgium; and Bischoff Weiss Gallery, London, United Kingdom.

His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Khyber Center for the Arts, Halifax, Canada; Kunsthalle Athena, Athens, Greece; Kunsthalle Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany; Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm, Germany; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany; Museum für Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany; Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany; Neuer Essener Kunstverein, Essen, Germany; Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic; Stadtgalerie, Saarbrücken, Germany; Städtische Galerie Gladbeck, Gladbeck, Germany; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; White Columns, New York, NY; and the Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan.

The artist lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

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SHANNON FINLEY: Mutations

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