Kerry Rowland-Avrech Catalog (Softcover)

Kerry Rowland-Avrech’s newest paintings outline an important crossroads in her work- isolated figures in broad vistas that are meditations on form and color. Her work borders on memoir since they are set on Venice Beach where she grew up in the sixties. She addresses the alienating effects of these beachscapes as well as those who find solitude within their fragile ecosystems. Rowland-Avrech frequently draws attention to distinctive parts of American architecture and art movements, such as Art Nouveau and Modernism. Most of her paintings invoke the use of mid-century architecture, recalling the colorful, casual Californian way of life that represented upscale living. Her work harkens to this modernist period while still imbued with a contemporary air. These open spaces are full of geometry and color, emphasizing the enormity of the natural world, heightening the viewers sense of fragility and the precariousness of life. At times, the figures seem microscopic against the vast landscapes, almost completely swallowed up by the color and contrast of her paintings.