DAVID AVERY

“The Last Roundup” etching, image size: 6 7/8″ x 5 7/8″

A practitioner of traditional black and white etching in San Francisco for over 30 years, David Avery has long been drawn to the works and techniques of the master etchers and engravers of the past 400 years as well as their literary counterparts, and often finds in them inspiration or a point of departure for his own work—a bridge, if you will between past thought and contemporary issues, one that sheds light in a unique way on such concerns.

It is the strange luminosity brought about by the unique quality of line etching on copper, limited only by the skill and patience of its practitioner, coupled with, perhaps, a somewhat suspect vision about things as they supposedly are which give Avery’s work its compelling appeal, and allows for the possibility of generating a multiplicity of narratives and interpretations.

Avery’s work has been noted in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, and is included in many museum collections, including the New York Public Library, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the Library of Congress, and the Stanford University Library Special Collections among others. In addition, Avery’s work has been included in over 200 exhibitions and won several awards.

“Das Narrenschiff”, etching, image size: 14 1/4″ x 7 1/2″