In the Year of the Covid, 2020, I am nevertheless very pleased that the de Young Museum of San Francisco will be purchasing my etching, MENDACIA RIDICULA (the Wheel of Ixion) for their collection, after having accepted my two entries for the de Young Open, an exhibition of Bay Area artists culled from over 11,000 entries. The Exhibition can be accessed online at https://deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions/de-young-open and will be showing at the museum until the beginning of January. This etching has become very popular recently for some reason (!) and has been included in eight shows since the beginning of the year, as well as being included in the collection of Casa de las Americas in Cuba.
Concerning which, there are now only four complete
sets left of the New Four Disgracers, of which this etching is a part.
Likewise, there are only four impressions of Obeliscolychny still available.
Get them before the coup starts!
Meanwhile…
What, though the field be lost,
All is not lost; the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what else is not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath
Extort from me.
From Paradise Lost, Book I—Satan lying in a pool of burning sulfur after being cast out of heaven (losing, that is). It will be a rocky road…
Here is a copy of the Washington Post Article by Mark Jenkins containing a review of my solo exhibit at the Washington Printmakers Gallery this last July. Stay tuned for more information on this year’s Open studio.
Here’s a review by Mark Jenkins
in the July 21st Washington Post:
David Avery’s “Tempestuous Muse,” on view at Washington Printmakers Gallery. (David Avery/Washington Printmakers Gallery)
“As a maker of hand-etched prints, David Avery is something of an antiquarian. He also inserts text – sometimes in Latin – into his exquisitely detailed work. So, of course, the San Francisco artist centered his display at Washington Printmakers Gallery on a print titled “Obeliscolychny.” It’s a word he allows is “obscure and rarely used,” in an essay accompanying the show, “Pursuing Invisible Reflections.”
The term refers to a lighthouse, which in Avery’s depiction is a spindly stack of many kinds of buildings, including monument, windmill and tumbledown shack. Here as in the other prints, the look and some of the content is closer to Albrecht Durer than any contemporary artist.
Yet the classic imagery is wittily updated. Avery interjects Renaissance-style intimations of mortality and damnation into everyday scenes: A skeleton rides a stick horse whose head is a equine skull, or a woman jogs with a stroller and a dog, accompanied by Death (riding a bicycle) and a demon. Such mash-ups would be only mildly amusing if the artist didn’t so successfully emulate centuries-old motifs and methods. Indeed, Avery is so adept that viewers in bygone eras might have surmised that he’d sold his soul to the devil.
Pursuing Invisible Reflections: The Etchings of David Avery On view through July 30 at Washington Printmakers Gallery, 1641 Wisconsin Ave. NW. 202-669-1497. washingtonprintmakers.com.
Recently I was interviewed by Cy Musiker for the KQED Arts section on their web page as part of his review of a show at the Juan Fuentes Gallery titled “Creation & Resistance: Printmaking in Dark Times”. The piece in question, “Year of the Rooster” was not reproduced in the article (!), so here it is. The Latin on the scroll reads: “The World Wishes to be Deceived” (Thank you, James Branch Cabell), which is really what the piece is about, more than just Trump per se. You can see the article here: https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/03/21/political-prints-pull-no-punches-at-juan-r-fuentes-gallery/ .
You can also visit the exhibit at the gallery at Accion Latina at 2958 24th Street (between Harrison and Alabama), Tues through Sat, 11 AM to 5PM through April 7th.
Year of the Rooster (2?x 2?) etching with watercolor
I hope that you will be able to make time in your Busy Schedules to visit me on the occasion of this year’s San Francisco Open Studios at which, in addition to exhibiting with four other accomplished printmakers (see below), I will be premiering The Coming of the Cocklicranes or His Kingdom Restored, a limited edition artist book featuring four etchings by the same name (now taking pre-publication orders!). Of course, as you have come to know and expect, a vast sampling of those pieces of paper smashed into polished copper plates which have been defaced with scratches and rudimentary chemistry will also be on display. Refreshments will be served.
WHERE–Gruenwald Press, 1663 Mission Street, San Francisco (entrance on Plum Street), identified with a prominent festively colored yellow sign reading “Gruenwald Press”. See map link for the secret entrance on “Plum Street“. http://mapq.st/1LAdN7Q
WHEN–October 31 to November 1, 11 AM to 6 PM
Reception (party!) October 30, 5:30 to 8:30 PM
WHO--Kathy Aoki, David Avery, Jonathan Barcan, Susan Belau, John Gruenwald
Please Note: there is regrettably a flight of stairs which has to be negotiated in order to reach the studio, HOWEVER, if needed, the freight elevator is easily accessible and can be utilized by calling 415-734-0376 and waiting patiently…
The harbingers of Autumn include the publication of five new prints; a series of four etchings entitled The Coming of the Cocklicranes (view here), as well as the just recently completed Runner (Mom, Death and Devil), based on the (you guessed it) famous Durer engraving of a similar name. In addition, there is the upcoming publication of a new artist book based on the aforementioned series of four etchings, which is anticipated to be ready for my 2015 Open Studio exhibition. This year I will be showing at the John Gruenwald Studio the weekend of Oct. 31st, along with four other accomplished and varied printmakers. More information will be forthcoming as the date approaches.
This year has seen a solo exhibit at the New Grounds Gallery in New Mexico, a three person show at the Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco, as well as prints included in an exhibit at the Venice Biennale, the Child’s Gallery in Boston, and several competitions with six awards and honorable mentions.
Etymology: <Middle French obeliscolychnie (Rabelais, 1548-52) <ancient Greek ??????????????? a spit used (by soldiers) as a lamp-holder < ????????? OBELISK n. + ??????? lamp-stand (see LYCHNIDIATE adj.)
Obs. rare.
A lighthouse: a lamp-bearer.
detail, Obeliscolychny
The final state my etching Obeliscolychny is now completed and can be seen on my website. It will ultimately become the visual component of a limited edition artist’s book that will attempt to bring together the image with the texts from which the ideas that inspired it were derived.
“Obeliscolychny?” you may be tempted to ask.
And with good reason. Arguably one of the most obscure and rarely used terms to be found in literature (or anywhere else), but with, perhaps, undue influence relative to its obscurity, obeliscolychny was invented/appropriated by Francois Rabelais (@1483-1553) and used in books IV and V of his sprawling tales of Gargantua and Pantagruel. Possibly derived from Aristotle’s Politics, which used it to describe a kind of spit used by soldiers to hang lamps on as a metaphor for…well, something or other, it acquired the meaning somewhere along the way of a lighthouse in the form of an obelisk.
Centuries later, Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), poet, playwright, critic, puppeteer, and subverter of objective reality, discovered the word while reading Rabelais and became enamored with it, using it (pataphysically, of course) in several of his novels. That these works tend to be as convoluted and recondite as the origins of obeliscolychny itself is part of what provides grist for the mill of this project.
We are expecting the book to be completed soon, and are aiming for an opening event in mid July, so please stay tuned. Below are listed my most recent exhibitions.
Purchase Award, Ink, Press, Repeat 2013; 1/21 to 2/15/2013, Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts, William Patterson University, Wayne, NJ (Jacob Lewis—Pace Prints Chelsea).
Lindquist Purchase Award, 2013 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition; 1/17 to 2/20/2013, Bradbury Gallery, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR. (Anne Coffin-IPCNY).
Man, Machine and Nature; 1/17 to 3/1/2013, LA Print Space, Los Angeles, CA.
New Prints 2012; 2/1 to 3/9/2013, Visual arts Center, University of Texas at Austin, TX.
34th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition; 3/9/13 to 4/20/13, Bradley University Galleries, Peoria, Il. (Stephen Goddard—Senior Curator, University of Kansas Kress Foundation).
24th National Drawing and Print Competitive Exhibition; 4/2 to 2/26/13, Gormley Gallery, Notre Dame of Maryland University, Baltimore, MD. (Amy Cavanaogh Royce).
26th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition; 3/21 to 5/9/2013, Ambercrombie Gallery, Lake Charles, LA. (Claudia Schmuckli).
The New York Society of Etchers 3rd National Exhibition of Intaglio Prints; 5/20 to 6/7/2013, The National Arts Club, NY, NY. (Dr. Leonard Moss and Dr. Muriel Moss).
If you are in the New York area this October, I will be exhibiting two prints in the New Prints 2012/Autumn show at the IPCNY Gallery, located at 508 West 26th Street, 5th Floor. The opening reception is Tuesday, October 30, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.
Out of over 2600 submissions, 36 prints were selected for this exhibit, and two of them are mine: A Ticket to Ride, and Safe, Clean, Cheap–Phaethon in the 21st Century. Both of these works can be seen on my website.
Yes, this is becoming my own Tower of Babel, but, as promised, I will be showing an impression of the second state (about two thirds!) of my ongoing project, Obeliscolychny, with the Bay Printmakers during the first weekend of San Francisco Open Studios at Ft. Mason (see details above). Also featured will be Tempestuous Muse, first place winner in last year’s Open Studios exhibit. And, in a further example of shameless self-promotion, don’t miss the blurbette on me in the 2012 Open Studios guide (heavily edited to protect the public). In addition to the usual display of the perennial favorites in glorious black and white, at least some of the texts which caused my current project to come into being will be available for examination, and for those who must insist I will, of course, be on hand to attempt some sort of rationalization as to what connection there could possibly be between these recondite excerpts and the images that supposedly resulted from their discovery. Looking forward to seeing you there.
“…Ho, ho, I see land! I can see harbor! I can see a great crowd on the pier. I can see fire on the obeliscolychny. “
Detail, Obeliscolychny
In addition to Open Studios, here is a list of current and upcoming shows in which my work will be included.
2012 Harnett Biennial of American Prints; 10/23 to12/9/2012, Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, Richmond, VA.
New Prints 2012/Autumn; International Print Center New York, New York
Culture: Man, Machine and Nature; 10/3 to 11/16/2012, Sisson Gallery, Dearborn, MI.
Inclusions, Art from within Bernal Heights; 9/22 to 10/21, Inclusions Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Trying to catch up…a busy second half of 2011, with the purchase of “A Post-traumatic History Lesson” by the Library of Congress, a purchase award at the 33rd Bradley International, as well as the First Place Award at the 2011 San Francisco Open Studios Exhibition, and many shows. I am also now being represented by the Jane Haslem Gallery in Washington, DC.
As you may have noticed, we are in the process of revamping the website to make it more complete and easier to get around. In addition to the four categories, there is also a complete listing by chronology. You may notice that as you scroll though the titles, some images do not come up. These images are not available yet, but will be added as they become so. The unintended consequence of this inefficiency is that you will be motivated to return to the site again and again to see if the next image has been put up. In the meantime, the following is a listing of shows I will be involved in which all happen to open in January:
From Dublin to LA and Back; 1/9 to 1/28 2012, Monster Truck Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland.
Global Matrix III; 1/9 to 2/29 2012, Purdue University Galleries, West Lafayette, IN. Traveling thereafter through 2013.
2012 Delta National Small Prints Exhibition; 1/19 to 2/17/2012, Bradbury Gallery, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR.
Traces, Marks and Fragments; 1/20 to 2/26/2012, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, San Luis Obispo, CA.
The Sixth Annual Invitational Exhibition; 1/17 to 3/4/2012, Gratton Gallery, Gratton, CA.
Off the Press, Contemporary Printmaking from the San Francisco Bay Area; 1/12 to 3/16/2012, The Halden Art Gallery, South Lake Tahoe, CA.
Well, it seems that Saturday, May 21st is Judgment Day, so please come and judge for yourself , the work of 30 printmakers exploring the extremes of size, intimacy and environment at a reception from 6:00 to 9:00 at the Meridian Gallery on 535 Powell Street. I will be showing several recent etchings, including a just finished piece, “A Ticket to Ride”, that is loosely based on Albrecht Durer’s “The Knight, Death and Devil”. In addition, I will be creating an intimate environment in which to present the work that will involve not only some of the very smallest pieces in the show, but also the largest, in the form of a single piece of silkscreened wallpaper (108 sq. ft.!) created and printed with the help of Art Hazelwood.
Avery wallpaper
For more information, including the press release listing all the participating artists, please go to www.meridiangallery.org
