My practice explores the intersection of history, place, and identity through painting, photography, printmaking, and ceramic sculpture. I work interdisciplinarily, translating ideas across media in order to determine how material, process, and pace shape meaning. I am deliberate in my choice of medium, selecting each process to best support the conceptual and emotional intent of the artwork.
Painting is central to my practice, where I primarily create portraits. These works draw from photographic references. Photography functions as both a tool for observation and a means of preserving memory, allowing me to construct compositions that inform my painted imagery. While my paintings tend to remain grounded in realism and portraiture, my experimental work moves toward surrealist visuals, creating space to explore ambiguity, symbolism, and altered narratives.
My work is guided by a historical lens, particularly Victorian sentimentalism and the intimacy of traditional craft. I am drawn to the tactile quality and deliberate pace of early industrial and pre-industrial techniques. While my early practice relied on faster materials such as acrylic, watercolor, and digital photography, I have increasingly shifted toward slower processes including oil painting, film photography, printmaking, and ceramics. These methods demand patience and sustained attention, mirroring my interest in care, preservation, and memory.
Photography remains essential to how I document and interpret the world. Working with film has engaged me in the physicality of development and printing, where chemistry, time, and imperfection become active collaborators. Printmaking introduces rhythm and repetition, connecting my work to the history of image-making and the dissemination of ideas. My exploration of ceramics extends this historical and material inquiry. I have created sculptural works inspired by Victorian porcelain dolls and produced cyanotype tiles that merge photographic process with ceramic form.
Across all media, my work seeks to bridge past and present, honoring traditional craftsmanship while engaging contemporary methods of seeing, recording, and preserving experience.
Artist Statement:
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Coming Up
All Campus Annual Student Exhibition
March 27 – April 24
Reception: March 27, 2026 6–8 PM
Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery | Frostburg State University, Fine Arts Building
Cat’s Cradle Art Collective
April 3 – May 10
Reception: April 11, 2026 5–7 PM
C. William Gilchrist Museum of the Arts | 104 Washington St. Cumberland, MD 21502
Stephanie Roper Retrospective
April 11 - 19
Opening Reception: April 11th, 2026 2-4 PM
Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery | Frostburg State University, Fine Arts Building
Lumina: Senior BFA Exhibition
May 9-15
Opening Reception: May 9th, 2026 2-4 PM
Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery | Frostburg State University, Fine Arts Building
Ava Breighner is a senior at Frostburg State University, majoring in Fine Arts with minors in Art History and Theatrical Studies. Her primary focus is painting and photography, though her practice is multi-disciplinary, spanning printmaking, collage, and textiles. She spent two semesters abroad at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, exhibiting her work at the university's Gallery North through a collaborative program with the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Regionally, her exhibitions include a 2023 debut solo show at the Bev Walker Gallery and her upcoming senior BFA exhibition, Lumina, at Frostburg's Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery. She also reinstated and served as President of the Beta Mu chapter of Kappa Pi Art Honor Society, curating the 2024 Spring Art Exhibition at the C. William Gilchrist Museum of the Arts, where she currently serves as Artistic Committee Co-Chair.