Holly MacKinnon: How to Hold Hands

The images that inform Holly MacKinnon’s paintings originate in private albums, often modest and unremarkable in their original context.

Through the slow and deliberate process of painting, these fragments of personal history are reconsidered and given renewed presence.

Above: Cake (P loves J), oil on canvas, 12 x 12″ and Right: The photo that inspired the painting – of MacKinnon’s mother and another woman holding a mysterious cake (“who are P and J, I don’t know,” MacKinnon says.)

MacKinnon’s newest paintings are on exhibition at Duran Contemporain in Montreal through April 18, 2026

At Duran Contemporain, here.

Holly MacKinnon on Instagram, here.