David Avery - prints and biography
American Etcher Creating Intricate Narrative works Inspired by Myth and Literature
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2021
Edition Size: 30
Image Size: 8.75 x 7.75 inches
Signed, titled and numbered from the edition of 30. One of several recent prints by Avery that continue to win awards and purchase by museums and public collections. Surrealistic image of skeleton looking over the shoulder of a printmaker as he works at his printing press. Memento Mori for printmakers.
The title of this work is derived from the writings of Bruno Schulz, who wondered if the substance of what we call reality could really be substantial enough to support the immensity of ideas whose integrity demands the resistance to incarnation. As the etching progressed, I began to think of it as a kind of summation of my work up until the present, and you may find quotations here and there from earlier pieces, as well as references to various outside influences and some goings-on of late.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2021
EditionSize: 25
ImageSize: 4.5 x 9.75 inches
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2018
Edition Size: 35
ImageSize: 14.25 x 17.5 inches
David Avery's "Ship of Fools" is a striking and intricate print that serves as a commentary on contemporary society and its myriad absurdities. The artwork portrays a chaotic scene aboard a small boat, crammed with characters engaged in a variety of nonsensical activities, each symbolizing different facets of human folly. The eye-catching detail and monochromatic palette draw viewers in, inviting them to explore the layers of meaning within the work. Above the ship, a tree emerges, adorned with symbols that hint at deeper philosophical inquiries, while the murky waters below teem with discarded objects, representing environmental neglect and the consequences of human actions. Avery's masterful blend of surrealism and social critique challenges us to reflect on the direction of our collective journey and the often misguided choices we make along the way.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Edition Size: 40
Image Size: 10.75 x 4.375 inches
Nonsense on Stilts is a towering allegorical etching by David Avery, constructed as a chaotic vertical procession of figures, objects, and symbols precariously elevated above the ground. A dense mass of grotesque characters—musicians, laborers, fools, and hybrids—balance atop spindly stilts that pierce the void below, suggesting instability, absurdity, and the fragility of human systems.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2016
Edition Size: 20
ImageSize: 12.75 x 6.25 inches
Avery frequently blends mythology, literary reference, and historical imagery, and here he draws inspiration from Alfred Jarry’s The Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician. The invented term “Mour-de-Zencle,” rooted in archaic French, has been interpreted as a metaphor for modern capitalism—its wake described by Jarry as the desert of “Commonly Accepted Ideas,” a place devoid of imagination.
The print features Avery’s signature density of detail, shifting from sky to ship to turbulent depths in a seamless vertical narrative. This work is a superb example of the artist’s commitment to black-and-white etching as a complete expressive language.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2022
Edition Size: 20
ImageSize: 10.5" x 7.75"
David Avery's etching "After the Deluge" is a piece that explores themes of post-rationalism and the aftermath of societal upheaval.The artwork, completed in 2022, won first prize at the 2023 Fine Arts Exhibition: Small Changes in Decatur, Georgia.It has also been invited to show in multiple locations in Italy, including Rome and Venice
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2022
Edition Size: 35
ImageSize: 8.088 x 6.75 inches
Paper Size: Zerkall Copperplate Cream (yellow) (15" x 12")
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2018
Edition Size: 30
ImageSize: 7.75 x 4.5 inches
Paper Size: Zerkall Laid Cover (cream)
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2014
Edition Size: 20
ImageSize: 4 x 10.25 inches
The subtitle for this print is Al Mutanabbi Street, 2007. That is when a suicide bomber attacked this street which has been famous for its booksellers and is named after the 10th century poet Al Mutanabbi.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2020
Edition Size: 30
Image Size: 5.088 x 4 inches
Paper Size: Zerkall Copperplate Cream (yellow) (15" x 12")
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2019
Edition Size: 40
ImageSize: 9 x 13 inches
A surrealistic black and white etching of a room with a solitary figure, surrounded by objects from art history. Among the various references are the hanging gourd, window glass and pillow from Durer’s St. Jerome in his Study, as well as the bell from his Melencolia. There is a bricked-up version of Duchamp’s urinal, Man Ray’s nail-studded iron (The Gift), Max Klinger’s glove, and a lantern from a Breughel painting. Of course, there is Alfred Jarry’s grand Gidouille and a Cabinet of Curiosities featuring a plethora of grotesques, including the ubiquitous alligator. The skate was shamelessly lifted from an Ensor painting. Many other curiosities can be found referencing some of my previous etchings.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2015
EditionSize: 30
ImageSize: 5.88 x 12.25 inches
An homage to both Max Klinger's surreal “Cupid, Death, and the Beyond”, and Albrecht Durer's "Knight, Death and the Devil". A young mother jogging with her child while talking on a cell phone and oblivious to the dangers of death and the devil around her as she speeds toward the end of the sidewalk with a wasteland beyond.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2020
Edition Size: 30
ImageSize: 7 x 9.75 inches
Encore by David Avery is a richly detailed allegorical etching that stages death, spectacle, and inevitability within a theatrical frame. A skeleton pianist performs at a grand piano set upon a proscenium-like platform, while the surrounding world collapses into chaos—storms swirl, creatures emerge, flames consume, and debris accumulates beneath the stage. The performance continues unabated, even as destruction encroaches from every side.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Edition Size: 30
Image Size: 6.88 x 5.88 inches
Year: 2017
The Last Roundup is a richly layered allegorical etching by David Avery, centered on a skeletal figure astride a mechanical contraption that merges agricultural imagery with instruments of industry and war. The skeletal rider raises a hat in a gesture that is part salute, part farewell, evoking themes of mortality, inevitability, and the closing of an era. Around the central figure, fragmented scenes of destruction, absurdity, and survival unfold—barrels burst, machines falter, and hybrid creatures scatter across a desolate landscape.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2011
EditionSize: 30
ImageSize: 6 x 6 inches
A modern-day Phaethon from Greek myth, falling from the sky after being thrown from the chariot of the sun god Helios.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2013
Edition of 30
ImageSize: 6 x 6 inches
Too Close to the Sun is based on the 16th century engraving of the fall of Icarus by Hendrick Goltzius from his series, The Four Disgracers that depicted the results of blind arrogance and ignorance in the face of the inexorable forces of the gods and nature. “All knowledge is at our fingertips, but where is the balance?”
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2011
EditionSize: 30
ImageSize: 5 x 12 inches
A Ticket to Ride by David Avery is a finely detailed surreal etching that stages a nightmarish journey through a mechanized landscape of motion, control, and fate. The central figure—a helmeted rider mounted on a skeletal, machine-like horse—moves along a rail track toward an uncertain destination, propelled as much by unseen forces as by will.
Avery layers the image with symbolic fragments: instruments, debris, and architectural remnants hover and collide, while the track itself becomes a metaphor for inevitability. The rider’s rigid posture and the hybrid construction of the mount suggest a tension between human agency and mechanical determinism, a recurring theme in Avery’s work.
By: David Avery
Medium: etching
EditionSize: 50
ImageSize: 4 x 3 inches
Exterminating Angel by David Avery is a powerful allegorical etching that draws on biblical and mythic imagery to explore judgment, destruction, and moral reckoning. A winged, muscular figure descends through turbulent clouds, wielding an industrial hammer-like instrument that merges divine authority with human technology. Around the figure, the landscape fractures—trees splinter, debris scatters, and smaller figures are overwhelmed by the force of the angel’s action.
By: David Avery
Medium: etching
ImageSize: 3 x 14 inches
A panoramic, sharply satirical print that unfolds as a continuous narrative procession. Figures, vehicles, animals, and symbols move relentlessly across the horizontal composition, forming a darkly comic parade of chaos, excess, and consequence. On one end, a monumental face looms in profile; across the length of the image, bodies tumble, machines rumble forward, and absurd details accumulate, culminating in violence and collapse.
Avery’s meticulous line work and biting visual language recall the tradition of political caricature and social critique, while the scale and density of imagery reward close inspection. The work reads as both allegory and indictment—an unflinching examination of power, spectacle, and the mechanisms that propel societies toward conflict.
David Avery
Biography
David Avery has been meticulously crafting black-and-white etchings for more than three decades. Originally trained as a classical musician, Avery's accidental enrollment in a community college etching class ignited a passion that led him to become a self-taught master of the medium.
Avery's work is characterized by its intricate detail and dark humor, often drawing inspiration from Old Master techniques to comment on contemporary issues. His etchings serve as a bridge between past and present, blending historical references with modern satire. For instance, his piece "Mendacia Ridicula (The Wheel of Ixion)" reimagines a mythological punishment to critique political figures, incorporating symbols like Ku Klux Klan robes and a "Trump" sign to underscore themes of arrogance and folly.
Avery’s narrative-driven imagery places his work in dialogue with other printmakers on this site, including Jos Sances, whose prints similarly draw on allegory, symbolism, and historical reference to explore the complexities of human experience.
His dedication has earned him recognition in esteemed collections across the nation.
Select Public Collections Featuring David Avery's Work
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Fogg Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University,
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, CA
Stanford University Library, Stanford, CA
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
San Francisco Public Library
Turner Print Gallery, California State University, Chico, CA
St. Mary's College, Moraga, CA
___________________________________________
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2016
EditionSize: 20
Image Size: 6.25 x 5.125 inches
The first of four images, The Coming of the Cocklicranes, No. 1 (Spring) is part of a series of four etchings by artist David Avery from 2015, which was also published as a limited edition artist's book of the same name. The term "Cocklicranes" (or Coquecigrues) is a fictitious animal mentioned in the Rabelaisian literature, specifically linked to a prophecy that a kingdom would be restored upon their arrival.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2016
Edition Size: 20
Image Size: 6.25 x 5.125 inches
This etching centers on a hybrid, shell-like form suspended against a fractured landscape, its interior erupting with vegetal and anatomical elements. A narrow vertical axis anchors the composition, while surrounding details—wires, leaves, and architectural fragments—suggest instability and containment at once. The image reads as both specimen and omen, balancing meticulous line work with a sense of latent disturbance.
This work is part of David Avery’s The Coming of the Cocklicranes series.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2016
Edition Size: 20
Image Size: 6.25 x 5.125 inches
A dense, cross-hatched shoreline scene in which a shell-like organic form is dragged and eroded by turbulent water. Debris, waves, and distant architectural fragments suggest slow movement and instability, with the composition balancing meticulous detail against a sense of continual drift.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2016
Edition Size: 20
Image Size: 6.25 x 5.125 inches
This etching presents a heavy, layered form resembling a shell or vessel, suspended above a fractured ground plane and shedding root-like growths below. Foliage and jagged extensions radiate outward, while fragments drift through the air as if caught in a slow collapse. The composition emphasizes weight and gravity, with dense line work giving the form a grounded, almost immobile presence despite its suspension. The Coming of the Cocklicranes" refers to a series of four etchings by artist David Avery from 2015.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
EditionSize: 30
ImageSize: 7 x 5 inches
A Post-Traumatic History Lesson is a meticulously rendered etching by David Avery, blending dark allegory with biting historical reflection. A skeletal rider, draped in tattered remnants, urges a skeletal horse forward across a scarred landscape strewn with debris—books, tools, and symbols of cultural collapse. The image reads as both procession and aftermath, evoking memory, violence, and the uneasy persistence of history.
By: David Avery
Medium: etching
Year: 2013
Edition of 21
Image Size: 27.75 x 5 inches
Obeliscolychny was invented/appropriated by Francois Rabelais (1483-1553) and used in books IV and V of his sprawling tales of Gargantua and Pantagruel. Used to describe a kind of spit used by soldiers to hang lamps on, it acquired the meaning somewhere along the way of a lighthouse in the form of an obelisk. This print is available on its own, or as a part of this fine press book, where it unfolds once opened.
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Edition Size: 30
Image Size: 6 x 3.38 inches
Year: 1992
By: David Avery
Medium: Etching
Year: 2023
Edition Size: 28
ImageSize: 6 x 15.75 inches
A rumination on our situation in our new post-rational world. Avery's work is characterized by its intricate detail and dark humor, often drawing inspiration from Old Master techniques to comment on contemporary issues.