Jess Allen
"My shadow figure paintings hint at, or suggest, a relationship, a moment of togetherness, impersonal, and without voyeurism. They are predominately about conveying a mood or a feeling." - Jess Allen
Within the silent world of painting, Jess Allen’s works explore themes of absence, presence, emptiness, memory, and time. Objects stand in as symbols of individuals kept out of view: a discarded book becomes a direct reference to its absent reader. Scenes of domestic space, populated by quotidian objects yet uninhabited by visible figures, become psychologically charged windows that leave the viewer searching for human presence.
Light and shade represent time, both present and past, with shadows becoming temporal signifiers that hark back to specific fleeting moments when the sun was positioned perfectly to create a form in the darkness. Like photos, the shadow paintings are a form of memorabilia, commemorating the feeling of a past moment in time. When viewed in the present, they breed an optimistic nostalgia by triggering feelings of the continued presence of 'someone' in our thoughts, minds, and hearts, even in their absence. In this way, intimacy is central to Allen’s practice, with the shadow paintings capturing multiple figures blurred into one as an ultimate ode to private connection and personal relationships, without an invitation for voyeurism.
Jess Allen (b.1966) is a contemporary British artist who studied at Camberwell College of Arts and Falmouth School of Art. Jess has worked locally in Cornwall, South West England for many years attracting a loyal collector following.
She has presented multiple solo exhibitions including Like Dust, The Shadows Remain (Scroll Gallery, New York, 2023), Nobody's Watching (Blue Shop, London, 2022) and Books and Boxes (Blue Shop, London, 2021).
She has been included in group exhibitions with galleries including: The Split Gallery, London (2023); Scroll Gallery, New York (2022); Blue Shop, London (2022); Cultivator, London (2022), Irving Contemporary, Oxford (2022), and Mall Galleries, London (2021). Her work has been featured at art fairs including WestBund Art Fair, Shanghai, and the London Art Fair.
