Avisca Fine Art Gallery presents April Harrison and Zoya Taylor in two-person exhibition for National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta

Avisca Fine Art Gallery in conjunction with the National Black Arts Festival, the annual celebration of arts and culture in Atlanta, presents a two-person exhibition of mixed-media and oil paintings by April Harrison and Zoya Taylor. Both artists are self-taught, figurative artists whose work is very much rooted in their respective culture but express universal themes.

South Carolina native, April Harrison creates rich mixed-media paintings that reveal her unshakable belief in the strength of faith, family and friendship. Her adept use of color and collaging with specialty paper and magazine prints, as well as her judicious re-purposing of found objects in her work, add a physical reality and a quilt-like quality that roots it firmly within an African American artistic tradition. An award-winning artist and illustrator, Harrison has achieved a great measure of success and popular acclaim.Her work has been featured at numerous venues including the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, GA; Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; Spartanburg County Museum of Art, Spartanburg, SC; and the Romare Bearden Juried Invitational at Charlotte's Mint Museum.

Zoya Taylor has developed a highly individualistic style of figuration and an incredibly idiosyncratic body of work that centers around a recurring cast of characters drawn partly from memories of a childhood spent in Jamaica, but very much a production of her psyche. Her view on the human condition is that "we all have a cast of characters that define our lives. Personal demons or angels—spiritual or not, there's a commonality in these characters. They draw on human themes of secrecy, pride and hurt, but also humor and love." Zoya Taylor was born in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She spent her early childhood in Germany and moved with her Jamaican father and Canadian mother to Kingston, Jamaica when she was eight. She enjoys gallery representation in the USA, Jamaica, Germany and Norway, and has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Kingston, Jamaica; Berlin, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Oslo, Norway; Florence, Italy; and London, England. In 2009 she was awarded the President's Award at the Florence Biennale in Florence, Italy. She currently lives in Oslo, Norway.

Avisca Fine Art Gallery is an alternative gallery space in downtown Marietta that focuses on work by emerging and mid-career African-American, Caribbean and Latin American artists. By sponsoring regular art exhibitions and educational programs that include gallery talks and screenings, the gallery seeks to contribute to the cultural enrichment of the Marietta community and the Greater Atlanta area.
The gallery is located at 507 Roswell Street in Marietta, GA 30060. Gallery hours are Thursday - Saturday, 12 noon - 6:00 pm and other times by appointment.