Born in Altmar, New York, Avery began his first study of art in 1905 at the Connecticut League of Art Students and later the School of the Art Society of Hartford, while working as the sole supporter of his extended family in various jobs—as an aligner, an assembler, a latheman, a mechanic, a file clerk, and a construction worker. It was not until 1926—after his relocation to New York City, and his marriage to artist and illustrator Sally Michel—that he was able to paint full-time. Avery's first solo exhibition was held in New York in 1920 and his first museum show—an exhibition of his watercolors—was held at The Phillips Collection in 1944.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:
The New York Public Library (2005); Milwaukee Art Museum (2001, traveled); Syracuse University, Lubin House, New York (1999); Knoedler & Company, New York (1999/2007); Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York (1994, 2003); Brooklyn Museum, New York (1990); Joseloff Gallery, University Center, University of Hartford, Connecticut (1989); Boise Art Museum, Idaho (1988, traveled); Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada (1986, traveled); The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee (1984, traveled); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1982, traveled); Sarah Campbell Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Texas (1981, traveled); Edith C. Blum Institute, Milton and Sally Avery Center for the Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (1981); Riva Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona and Santa Fe, New Mexico (1981/2005); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts (1980, traveled); The Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada (1978); Katonah Museum of Art, New York (1977); The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Storrs (1976); University of Texas Art Museum, Austin (1976–77, traveled); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1973); National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (1969–70); David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1966/75); The Museum of Modern Art, New York, (1965); Waddington Galleries, London, England (1962/2004); HCE Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts (1958/64); The Baltimore Museum of Art (1952); Grace Borgenicht Gallery (1951/95); The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (1944, 2004); Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York (1944/49); Paul Rosenberg & Co., New York (1943/46); Valentine Gallery, New York (1935/42).

Selected Group Exhibitions:
Placing Avery: Paintings and Prints from the Collection of the Neuberger Museum of Art, The UBS Art Gallery, New York (2009); Coming to Light: Avery Gottlieb Rothko—Provincetown Summers 1957–1961, Knoedler & Company, New York (2002); Against the Stream, The Katonah Museum of Art, New York (1994); The Gloucester Years: Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, John Sloan, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York (1982); Realism and Realities: The Other Side of American Painting, 1940–1960, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (1982); Modern American Painting, 1910–1940, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (1977); The Natural Paradise: Paintings in America, 1800–1950, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1976); Landscapes, Interior and Exterior: Avery, Rothko, and Schueler, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (1973); Milestones of American Painting in Our Century, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts (1949).

Selected Public Collections:
Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; The Dayton Art Institute, Ohio; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Memorial Art Gallery of The University of Rochester, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Neuberger Museum, Purchase College, State University of New York; The Newark Museum, New Jersey; New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; The New York Public Library, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Pennsylvania; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; San Diego Museum of Art, California; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Tate Gallery, London, England; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Selected Writings on the Artist:
David Anfam, Milton Avery: Works on Paper (2004); Arthur C. Danto, Milton Avery: Onrushing Waves (2004); Ruth Fine, Magical Means: Milton Avery and Watercolor (2007); Bonnie Lee Grad. Milton Avery (1981); Clement Greenberg. “Milton Avery,” Arts (December 1957); Marsden Hartley, "On the Persistence of the Imagination: The Painting of Milton Avery, American Imaginative," (1938) in Gail R. Scott, ed. On Art by Marsden Hartley (1982); Barbara Haskell. Milton Avery (1982); Robert C. Hobbs. Milton Avery (1990) and Milton Avery: The Late Paintings (2001); Hilton Kramer. Milton Avery: Paintings 1930–1960 (ca. 1962); Harvey S. Shipley Miller, Milton Avery: Drawings and Paintings (1976); Marla Price, Milton Avery: Progressive Images (1988); Eliza Rathbone, Discovering Milton Avery: Two Devoted Collectors: Louis Kaufman and Duncan Phillips (2004); Mark Rothko, "Tribute to Milton Avery, January 7, 1965," in Mark Rothko: Writings on Art (2006).