Avery Wheless makes energetic and tender paintings, performance pieces, and video installations that capture the agency, presence, and creativity of the contemporary female body. Wheless’ protagonists frolic, float, pose, play, and dance at dinner parties and in restaurants, while traveling together, or while just chilling at home. Each painting offers a sanctum full of multitudinous subjectivities and freedom from the male gaze. Wheless’ glowing palette and her confident, gestural brushwork are informed by her longstanding relationship to movement and light—people watching and sketching with her father (an animator) and rigorously training in ballet from a young age, influenced by her mother (a ballet teacher), Wheless later found herself painting en plein-air along the northern California coast with a close-knit group of seasoned painters and mentors. More recently, her experiences as a filmmaker, writer, and performance-based artist all feed back into her vigorous studio practice where she embraces her role as a conduit for artistic energy.

Wheless (b. 1993, Charlotte, NC) received a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Superzoom in Paris, France and Miami, FL; Garten Gallery in Como, Italy; BOZOMAG, Rusha & Co., and Bam Gallery in Los Angeles, CA; and OCHI in Sun Valley, ID and Los Angeles, CA. In 2023, Wheless completed the Katikía Artist Residency in Monemvasia, Greece. Her work has been featured and reviewed in publications including Cultured, Flaunt, Artforum, Autre Magazine, Art Megastar, and Vents Magazine. Wheless lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and is represented by OCHI.