The Problem With Love

David Avery

David Avery’s work often confronts the human condition with equal parts darkness and humor, always seeking out the balance of the two. As well, he uses a deceptively classical style, as if to set up the viewer to expect a harmless ex libris found in a Cambridge library, when in fact each work is a small and engrossing story on its own.

In this etching, Avery pokes fun at the business of love, rendering a blinded, piggish Cupid en route to the heart through the figurative- and literal- arterial mechanisms of the heart. Some viewers may swiftly recognize the pitfalls of this oft-welcomed mythical beast and wish to swat him away, while others, blind themselves, welcome him with open arms. The strength of Avery’s work lay in his technical precision in both technique and cheekiness.