Hayden Beck Gallery

Born in North Bay, Ontario, Holly Farrell now lives in Toronto. Since 1995, she has been exhibiting her work in galleries in Canada and the United States. Her work, which is mostly still life, has a familiar, universal appeal. She has won several awards and garnered much critical acclaim.

Farrell considers herself a portrait painter in an atypical sense. It is not people she works with, but instead the tools of domesticity. Worn chairs, cookbooks, soap, shoes and even lifejackets are finely wrought. It is their articulated wear and tear, simple settings and suggestive lighting that all work to convey an innate character of their own. But Farrell offers another twist on these portraits. Her use of super-glossy oil on panel elevates these commonly used objects to be irresistible, sexy icons.