AVERY SKAGGS; Abstract Expressionist Painter

Written by Averyl Veliz, Avery’s agent

Avery is an Alaskan artist, and has been painting with his fingers all his life. He has had 7 solo exhibition, and has 2 upcoming shows in 2021. His pieces have been in numerous group shows both in Alaska and the Lower 48. 

Each week, Avery spends 4-5 days creating with the help of staff members. With his support staff, he simultaneously works on about 10 pieces at a time, letting layers dry and selecting new colors. Being non-verbal, Avery’s art is a crucial form of his communicative repertoire. All of us who work as Avery’s support staff strive to give him the opportunity to explore different mediums and styles with which to express himself. All of the original pieces are acrylic paint applied by Avery’s hands on wood, unless stated otherwise.

Abstract Expressionism, also called Action Painting, is the style that is credited for bringing Westernized American Art into the Euro-centric cannon, post WW2. The process is reflectent of the artist simultaneously confronting their conscious and subconscious artistic decisions, while expressing both their inner selves and the external demands they experience. This style has been known to have a mythical philosophy, where the paintings themselves are archetypal.
Jackson Pollock is arguably the most famous of the Abstract Expressionists, and the one with whom Avery’s art may remind people of. Pollock’s philosophy gives us foundation with which to interpret this unique style:

 
(Paint) is not as a passive substance to be manipulated at will,
But is a storehouse of pent-up forces to release.

The speed and direction to which Avery’s fingers strike the canvas, how each stroke interacts with its former layers of pigment, the more I’m drawn in. Each piece is its own living entity, constantly in motion, long after Avery has released his last stroke.