January 10 - February 15, 2014
Siemon Allen’s studio practice reflects a number of distinct yet interconnected processes in which his overlapping interests in aesthetics and politics allow him to produce works that are loaded with historical significance and visual magnitude. He systematically accumulates mass-produced materials including postal stamps, newspapers, old film stock, trading cards, comics, and audio recordings. Allen catalogues and repurposes these visual culture artifacts as raw material for creating large-scale works that challenge the division between sculpture and painting. His approach is not unlike that of an archivist, each collected item bringing with it the narrative of its production, dissemination, and function. Yet configured for exhibition, Allen’s collection projects operate as gridded pattern fields and are transformed into autonomous art objects.
Allen also uses more experimental approaches such as employing his flat-bed scanner to create large-scale digital prints and architectural scale modeling to explore the idea of creating rooms within rooms. Most recently he has been exploring ways in which his own collection of plans and models from past exhibitions might collide and combine into a single space and temporality. The finished work will be a sort of matryoshka doll amalgamation of exhibition venues and miniature art works.
For his exhibition at Reynolds Gallery, Allen will present a number of new works that reflect distinct themes and threads that have been consistent investigations of his studio practice form many years. As Allen describes it, “I see Exhibition as an exploration into works that have been germinating for some time in my mind, works conceived and not realized. In a sense Exhibition is a move into the territory of those in-between spaces that are a part of the studio process.” The show explores the processes of conceptually and physically creating art works.
sourced from the gallery press release
