Ava Werner

Ava Werner is an American multi-media artist, working with 2D media and installation.  Broadly, her work focuses on how humans impact the earth and its resources.  Her specific focus for this work revolves around the four basic elements of earth, water, fire and air and how these elements are affected by climate change in the environment.

Werner’s most recent work talks about history, climate change and the 4 elements.  She uses her collection of magazines and printed ephemera as re-purposed images.  Werner selects imagery of actual unfolding disasters or related to disasters waiting to happen.  The uneasy balance in the work conveys how our societies are operating near this precipice.  There is a soft-ominous quality to the work, like seeing something out of the corner of your eye that reveals something you already intuitively sensed, and suddenly explains why you feel uneasy. 

Werner is a lecturer in the Art and Design Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Most recently, Werner had a residency summer 2023 at Vermont Studio Center. Her Waterlinks Installation project with James Werner is ongoing and has been installed in New Zealand, Micronesia and Vanuatu, Australia, California, New York and Maine.