Artists

Jess Allen

Press release

Nino Mier Gallery is thrilled to announce Out of Time, an exhibition of paintings by British artist Jess Allen. The exhibition features oil paintings of raking shadows projected across cropped domestic interiors. The works emerge at the atmospheric crux between present and past, conjuring the liveness of an object or place we also sense is lost. The exhibition, our first with the artist, will be on view from September 12 – October 26 in Brussels.

Jess Allen’s paintings feature close-ups of interior architecture and furniture—the ridge of a bench, a bent-up pillow—rendered in a rich color scheme dominated by deep reds, oranges, greens and blues. Stark shadows of figures or architectural features are cast across the fabrics and walls painted in each background. Allen’s shadows function like an inverted spotlight, creating focus and presence through absence. Crumpled cushions on sofas suggest a past human presence through their indentations. Areas of blankness within shadows allow space for thought. Light and shade index the passage of time, with shadows suggesting fleeting moments created by specific angles of the sun's rays and the earth's axis.