Jess Allen

Renowned artist Jess Allen is set to captivate audiences with her exhibition, This Is Now, her first solo presentation with Unit. Through a mesmerising series of paintings, Allen invites viewers on a journey through the ephemeral and indistinct moments that define our existence, blurring the boundaries between past and present.

This Is Now delves into the essence of fleeting moments, where shadows intertwine with figures to evoke feelings and moods rather than concrete details. Allen's minimalist approach to painting creates a canvas for introspection, allowing viewers to extend the current moment and explore the universal resonance of memories triggered by imagery.

Drawing inspiration from real-life moments, Allen's artworks transcend the personal to embrace the universal. Utilising photography as a starting point, she captures the essence of "nowness" in everyday scenes, from sunlight casting shadows on familiar settings to intimate domestic moments shared with loved ones.

In the title artwork, "this is now," Allen pays homage to her artistic journey while exploring the dynamics of relationships within a domestic setting. Figures and shadows coexist, each embodying its own narrative, reminiscent of David Hockney's iconic double portrait, "Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy."

Autobiography emerges as a central theme in paintings such as "the passing of time," where sunlight through a window symbolises the passage of time and the evolution of life experiences. Through recurring motifs like open books and nested paintings, Allen masterfully weaves a tapestry of interconnected moments, inviting viewers to reflect on their own journey through time.

This Is Now transcends the boundaries of traditional art, inviting viewers to actively engage with each painting, projecting their own experiences onto Allen's evocative canvases. By blurring the lines between present and past, Allen challenges perceptions of time and memory, reminding us that every moment holds the potential to shape our "now."

Jess Allen (b. 1966) is a contemporary British artist, born in Dorset and now based in Cornwall. She studied at Camberwell College of Arts and Falmouth School of Art. Her practice is centred around domestic objects and locating the sublime in the seemingly mundane. She explores the gulf between our exterior façades and inner worlds, allowing us to glimpse the varying degrees of chaos and order that may lie behind doors. In 2023, her work, A Moment Together 1, was featured in an article by The FT’s Enuma Okoro titled ‘The art that resets and restores us,’ with the writer describing Allen’s work as ‘powerfully evocative’ (The FT, November 2023).

Her recent solo exhibitions include Like Dust the Shadows Remain, Scroll Gallery, New York (2023); Nobody’s Watching, Blue Shop Gallery, London (2022) and Books and Boxes, Blue Shop Cottage, London (2021). In 2023 her work was featured internationally in group exhibitions that included Through the Window, Sens Gallery, Hong Kong; Kiaf Art Fair, Gallery Mark, Seoul, South Korea; The Angel in the House, Studio West Gallery, London and Untold Stories, G/ART/EN Gallery, Como, Italy.