The pictures created by contemporary artist Julia Avramidis are never conclusively explicable—there is no simple solution to her riddles and secrets. Despite their apparent abstraction, her collages—seemingly thrown together in haste—permit us to recognize life deep down, hidden beneath the layers of materials. In Avramidis’s work, plaster and gauze are pushed together into folds and forms on surfaces and grids. Her landscapes and seascapes, painted in a lyrically abstract and sometimes calligraphic style, are not real, but rather Arcadian and expansive, as if from another time. Initially abstract, on closer viewing human and bird-like figures begin to stand out with increasing clarity, and start to tell their stories. This volume features full-color reproductions of key works from throughout the artist’s career and will be the perfect introduction to this fascinating Austrian artist.