We are excited to showcase a local artist, who happens to be one of our own patients! Next time you’re in, be sure to browse the original artworks of Molly Finnerty hanging on our dental office walls.
Molly is an abstract painter from New York. Following her graduation form Alfred University with a BFA in 2012 she moved to Berlin to work with Takt Kunst Projektraum on a group art show at Tapir Gallery in Friedrichshain. While in Berlin, she found inspiration in street and graffiti art. She was drawn to the immediacy of how these artists create their work on-site, and simultaneously the art begins to be viewed by the public.
As a studio painter, Molly set out to dissolve the often months or years it can take for a series of paintings to be made, striving to minimize the time it takes for work to be shared with viewers in a gallery setting. In 2012 she showcased her first international solo show as part of Amsterdam’s AWA Gallery 24-hour artist in residence program. She had 24 hours to create a body of work in their studio space, which doubles as the gallery showroom. At the 25th hour, the Gallery was cleaned and the doors were opened to the public. Decreasing the time in between the inception of the project and the reveal to the public created a sense of exhilaration through vulnerability, and eliminated a common challenge – artists block.
There was no time to second guess my ideas or vision for the show, it was go time” said Finnerty.
After the show she moved to New York City, where Finnerty continued to explore ways of eliminating the time it takes to share art with viewers. She painted out of a street level warehouse in Brooklyn with the garage doors open, public welcomed. During this time, one of her drawings was selected as part of The Guggenheim Museum’s online show Gutai: Please Draw Freely and within minutes it was featured on Guggenheim.org.
After a year of working in New York; she decided it was time to slow down, and enjoy the process of developing a painting over time. In search of a culturally vibrant city with a slower pace of life, she relocated to Austin.
The works in our office at Thompson Dentistry are the beginning stages of Molly’s efforts to slow the creative process back down. Molly is currently being hosted by Earth and Fire Imports Gallery, in Terlingua, Texas. She is currently working on a series of 6’ x 6’ paintings with a self imposed timeline of a year and a half. They will show in the Fall of 2017 in a gallery in Marfa, Texas. Her work is also on display at Texas Ranch House Too in Alpine, Texas, and her full portfolio is available for view at Mfinnerty.com.
Molly’s contact information is available through the office, just ask the next time you visit!
