Artist Bio

I'm Kaitlyn Avery, a Birmingham based artist, focusing on the figure and human relationships. I've been working as an artist since 2018 and then achieving my BFA in Painting from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2022. In the past two years, I've committed myself to my work and being involved in the Birmingham art community. In 2023, I moved into a studio at MakeBhm in Avondale where I've been able to return to my oil painting roots. I've also been able to work as a framer and a gallery assistant, greatly broadening my understanding of the art world. In the next few years, I hope to progress my career as a full-time artist and potentially continue my studies in graduate school. 

Artist Statement

​As a figurative artist, my work has always been about people. Whether it's relationships, self-reflection, or narratives, the goal is always to reach connection with people. I mainly utilize paint in my practice, as I've found paint most closely captures the physical feeling of the body. One of my favorite technical aspects of figure painting is recognizing the color in all skin. It's too easy to look at skin as some variation of brown, when there is really an array of colors perfectly concealed from the unaware eye. I can spend hours picking apart the different hues in a shadow if I let myself- and all the while, my mind is thinking about the endless memories that must make up this person. I see my work as a celebration to the human body. There is never anything physical about the people I choose to paint that makes me choose them, it's their story and every person has one. Whether or not a viewer will know anything substantial about these people, they will subconsciously create some fiction about them that reflects some unknown part of themselves. My goal as an artist is to give viewers the space and opportunity to unabashedly see people and fall in love with life as an infinite web of possibilities that we can never fully know but forever be apart of.