'Books from Boxes' by Jess Allen
Open Daily | 11am-6pm
10th - 17th November 2021
PV Drinks 11th November 6-9pm
RSVP hello@blueshopcottage.com

JESS ALLEN

Jess Allen is an artist, who lives and works 'off the beaten track.' She has exhibited rarely, and her solitude from the art world, is apparent in the images she makes. 

Jess Allen was born in 1966 in Dorset, in the United Kingdom. She spent most of her childhood in London, and studied Foundation at Camberwell College of Arts. After gaining a BA Honours in Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art, she remained living in Cornwall.

She has shown work at Newlyn Art Gallery, the Mall Galleries in London, and at the Affordable Art Fair. Earlier this year she showed work in an exhibition in Sweden co curated by Brit Pruiksma of Mothflower, and the Magnus Karlsson Gallery. Her work is in many private collections, including in the States, UEA, Bahrain, Japan, and Europe. She is married with two grown up daughters, and has been a Partner in two businesses, previously Arthouse Frames, and currently Simon Allen Sculptor.  

BOOKS FROM BOXES

“Over the years my painting practice has become a quiet place of looking and contemplation. It is about honouring the everyday, and the overlooked.” - Jess Allen

Working in isolation in her remote studio in Cornwall, Jess Allen paints simple ordinary objects. Her paintings of boxes, and books, have often been compared to the work of the Italian icon of still life painting Giorgio Morandi, for their similarity of subject as well as their spareness. 

In her box still lives Jess Allen makes figurative images about almost 'nothing'. Inspired by the Japanese concept of MA, which in Japanese culture, is a minimalist aesthetic concerned with the equal importance of space within an artwork, Jess explores our perception of space, both physical and spiritual, and it's importance in our life. As Yukiko Kisaki  says this 'MA is what creates the peace of mind we all need so that there is room for our thoughts to exist properly and to thrive.'

Jess also explores the tipping point between the abstract and figurative. Lucien Freud said, "the longer you look at an object the more abstract it becomes, and ironically, the more real." Her inspiration for the book paintings were the abstract patterns which bookends make when seen together on bookshelves. These stripes of colour were further explored in her paintings of books in stacks, and she also describes how these towers made her think about balance, as well as suggesting the architectural. 

Sensing that only a few 'read' these paintings in an abstract sense, Jess recognises that many appreciate them because of their personal relationship to books, or because they resonate as symbols of literature, more pertinent because of our increasingly technological age. Whilst acknowledging this, she says  'Despite my awareness that books are literature, I avoid text or titles. I do not want them to be any certain book, and judged accordingly. By making my books nameless, I hope to allow every viewer to bring whatever book they choose to the painting. I like the openness of this.'  She continues, ' themes tend to run through. Recently pages have no writing on them. This suggests that they are waiting for the viewer to imagine, or 'write' their own text. A connection with MA is also here, in the empty space on the pages, which give place and space to a pause.'

Thinking about her own painting practice, Jess notes a parallel with the act of reading, where solitude is necessary to fully experience the words, and this echos the artist's experience of being alone in the studio and absorbed in painting.  In this exhibition ‘Books from Boxes’ her work shows how a mindful concentration on simple objects can encompass a deeper and considered experience of being.