Chris Avis
BA Fine Art First Class Honours 1994
MA Art in Architecture 1996
   In 2016 Chris Avis's worked with nine sets of mothers and daughters. She became a fly on the wall absorbing their relationships through photography and digital sound recordings. The results of this project were shown at the Park Theatre where video and digital prints were exhibited in March and April 2017, and as Part of POW Thanet in March 2018.
   As an older artist herself Chris has been exploring elements of the ageing process for several years. In 2015 a solo exhibition at the Park Theatre exhibited a range of prints, photographs and collages covering a body of her work on older women.  A selection of this work was used as a sequence for the production of her first video ‘Third Age: a personal response. This was’ shown in ‘Schlachten’ an International Contemporary Arts Fair just outside of Berlin in July 2015 and in Moving Image Margate as part of International Women’s Week in 2016. This video and a film made in collaboration with Didi Hopkins were screened at Rich Mix as part of the Barbican Guildhall Open Lab Festival, in July 2015. In 2017 'Is it safe to dream?'was shown in Wunsdorf Neue Gallery as part of the Schlachten Festival 'I am safe'  
   Much of her success can be traced back to 2013 when she received a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship to spend six weeks researching the attitudes of the arts communities in the cities of Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam towards older artists. This was followed in 2014 with a  Barbican Guildhall Open Lab when Chris brought together eleven older visual and performing arts professionals from across Europe to investigate the prejudices and preconceptions linked to age and creativity through their own disciplines. 
   During the 1980s and early 1990s Chris Avis was a successful London based designer maker working in porcelain, glass and mixed media. Her work was sold throughout this period in Liberty, Heals, Innate Harmony, Cecilia Colman Gallery and Charles De Temple, all in London and ‘Beautiful Things’ in New York. In addition, regular exhibitions and sales took place in London, Brighton, Bath, Colchester, Oxford, Cambridge and Suffolk.
   After a period of employment as a senior manager Chris returned to her studio in 2009 when she chose initially to investigate a long term interest in mannequins.  This work was launched with a solo exhibition called ‘Red Lips’ that was supported by the mannequin manufacturer ‘Proportion>London’.  It involved an installation of eight identical mannequins and a range of related photographs shown in ‘The Outside World Gallery’, Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, in February 2010. Her second set of installations took place in the Crypt Gallery beneath St Pancras Parish Church in April 2012.
  • Group Exhibition GLOW 08/03/18 - 30/04/18 Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP
  • Solo exhibition 'SHE' 05/03/18 -11/03/18 York St Gallery, Ramsgate (part of POW Thanet)
  • Selected 'We Are Sweet Art' 19/12/17-23/12/17 Espacio Gallery London E2 7DG
  • Selected 'Schlachten' Contemporary Arts Festival 09/09/17 - 08/10/17 Neue Wunsdorf, Zossen, Germany
  • Curious Unfinished 06/7/17 Barbican Guildhall Festival London EC2Y 8DS
  • Solo exhibition 'SHE' 08/3/17 - 30/4/17 Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP
  • Talking Heads for POW (Power of Women) Thanet at Turner Contemporary 08/3/16
  • Moving Image Margate, ‘Third Age: a personal response’ screening 08/3/16- 13/3/16. Presentation 08/3/16
  • Group Show 'Un Seul Grain de Riz’ 19/12/15 - 09/01/16 Galerie Metanoia, 56 Rue Quincampoix, 75004 Paris
  • Solo exhibition 'Time Passing' 21/7/15 -20/8/15 Park Theatre, Finsbury Park, London N4 3JP 
  • 'Third Age' 04/0715 screened at the Rich Mix Showcase selected for Barbican Open Lab Festival
  • Selected 'Schlachten' Contemporary Arts Festival June/July 2015 Mendelsohn Hall, Luckenwalde Germany
  • Selected ‘Time Passing' 23/10/14 - 1/11/14 Art Gemini Trispace Gallery, Bermondsey, London SE16 4DF
  • Short listed ‘Time Passing' June 2014 National Open Art Competition
  • Two-person collaboration - 'Labelled for Life' 06/02/14 - 19/02/14 Studio 6. 8 Hornsey St, London N7 8GR
  • Solo exhibition 'Remnants of Reality' 08/05/13- 26/05/13 Centre for the Arts,Altwood Rd, Maidenhead Berks SL6 4PF
  • Short listed - 'Essence of Reality' January 2013 Cork Street Open - Winter Show, 28 Cork St London W1S 3NG.
  • Group Show-Mannequin Installations 13/4/12- 23/4/12 'The Crypt Gallery' St Pancras Parish Church, London NW12AB
  • Group Show- Mannequin  prints 19/07/11- 19/08/11 'Islington Exhibits'  Voluntary Action Islington, London N1 9JP.
  • Group Show-Mannequin photographs 27/04/11-08/05/11 'The Brick Lane Gallery' ‘Wind Up’ Sclater St, London E1 6HR.
  • Group Show- Cycle photographs 18/04/11-02/05/11 'Look Mum No Hands' Old St, London EC1V 9HX.
  • Group Show- Mannequin mixed media prints 25/03/11-03/04/11 Candid Arts, Mixed Media, Angel, London EC1V.
  • Group Show photographs 08/10/10-10/10/10 The Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair, Angel, London EC1V 1NQ.
  • Group Show- photographs 20/05/10– 12/06/10 & 25/05/11-  16/06/11 ' 'Take 5 Gallery’ Norwich.
  • Solo exhibition - Installation & photographs 25/02/10- 04/03/10 ‘The Outside World Gallery’ ‘Red Lips’ Redchurch St London E2 7DP.