JESS ALLEN: OUT OF TIME

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.

September 12 – October 26, 2024

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. 

Shadows are potent but mutable, much like memories that are evocative yet hazy. They capture fleeting moments in time and, when represented, memorialize specific instants within their transient forms.

“Shadows interest me immensely because they are silent and ephemeral. They are evocative and, like memories, they are hazy. In a way, they are a minimal representation of our physical selves,” Allen writes. 

Out of Time elevate mundane daily encounters with domestic space and light. Through Allen’s masterful use of color, shadow, and composition, she transforms ordinary interiors and furniture into subjects of deep introspection.