Tamera Avery’s monumental paintings draw us into deeply compelling scenarios – enigmatic, surreal places peopled with young, absurdly costumed protagonists. Her subjects are portrayed with an empathetic eye for the plight of youth today, who are coming of age in a time of environmental, social, political and economic crises. Avery paints an unsettling portrait of this critical juncture, where younger generations face a world and a future full of uncertainty, shifting paradigms and daunting challenges. The artist juxtaposes their vulnerability with their power, recognizing them as searchers, dreamers, stewards and warriors… unsure of what’s ahead, but trying to find their way.

These paintings draw simultaneously on genres of history painting, religious altarpiece and portraiture. In their uncanny aura lies the world of ambivalent futures we inhabit. In part, this effect emerges from Avery’s construction of environments from fragments which are culled from the internet, social media, personal photographs and found materials, then collaged together as preliminary studies for the paintings. The artist bases her protagonists on her children and their peers, who collaborate in costuming and choreography. These young wayfinders appear in curiously liminal spaces within which they forge unlikely paths, transforming ordinary things – plastic gloves, an upturned handbag, abandoned toys, an old scarf – into extraordinary armor for selfhood.

above: Amusement Park, oil on canvas. Photo by John Janca

below: Squeeze, Evergreen, Slipstream, oil on canvas