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FAMILIAL BEASTIARIES:

WORK BY AVA HARPER
AUGUST 5 - 28

Opening Reception 
August 14, 5-8pm 



what it means to witness loss, and how care can take form in its presence.




During July and August, the Split Level Gallery is curated through A.P.E.’s Emerging Curator Program; curators Sophie Gill and Adrienne Albro-Fisher


FAMILIAL BEASTIARIES is a group of mixed media work by Ava Harper grounded in care and compassion for the artist herself, her family, and the viewer. She illustrates narrative series that move through different aspects of grief, shaped by the loss of her sister. She turns to photography to hold onto a sense of lived reality, and to etching and relief processes when she needs space for something more imagined. The subjects of her images are both the named and unnamed family members and otherworldly creatures of her life.

In Harper’s printed work, she builds a world of oversized rabbits and vultures. Working across scale, from large drawings to intimate prints, these figures move through relationships shaped by loss.

Alongside this, the artist photographs her family as they live with grief. These images sit between the private and the public, at times drawing from both personal photographs and images circulated through media. The work considers what it means to witness loss, and how care can take form in its presence.

The artist has invited us into her world of meaning making through the visualization of worlds of  imagination and reality. We are in turn asked to reflect on our personal feelings and memories – of the real and the imaginary, of joy and of loss – all the same.


AVA HARPER is a Massachusetts based artist currently studying in Boston where she is a MFA candidate in the Boston University Print Media and Photography program. She uses analog and digital printmaking and photography methods to explore metaphorical systems of grief, the spectacle of publicized private grief, and the ongoing opioid epidemic. During her undergraduate studies at Smith College, she was the recipient of the Amplify Public Art Award for public art installation and the Elizabeth Killian Roberts Prize for drawing. She holds a BFA in Studio Fine Arts and English Creative Writing. 






A.P.E.'s programming is made possible in part by sustained support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.