Los Angeles-based artist Kohshin Finley’s solo exhibition, Eight Artworks, features portraits of significant people from his community, including family and close friends. Equipped with a camera in hand, Finley captures candid snapshots of his subjects to use as source material for expressive works on canvas. He translates these moments of everyday life into scenes that suggest the heroic and monumental. Deeply interested in portraiture’s ability to construct one’s legacy, he creates an elevated platform for his subjects.

Finley’s stylistic choices mirror his conceptual ambitions. His use of grisaille recalls the use of grayscale paintings in art history to imitate marble sculpture. Like the symbols of prestige and care these sculptures stand for, his paintings emphasize the importance of attending to and upholding his community. In contrast to the Finley’s early hyper-realistic work, the paintings in Eight Artworks are executed with expressive brush strokes that capture the immediacy of fleeting moments.

Eight Artworks is on view at Various Small Fires in Dallas, Texas through Nov. 12th, 2022. See more from the series below!