LINDA
MIEKO ALLEN
December
13 - January 21, 2004 |
Linda Mieko
Allen, Equilibria I (Smoke and Ghosts),
mixed media on wood panel, 24 x 24 inches, 2003 |
Linda Mieko
Allen, Equilibria II (Equivalent),
mixed media on wood panel, 24 x 24 inches, 2003 |
Linda Mieko
Allen, Equilibria III,
mixed media on wood panel, 24 x 24 inches, 2003 |
Linda Mieko
Allen, Equilibria IV,
mixed media on wood panel, 24 x 24 inches, 2003 |
| Linda
Mieko Allen's first New York solo show "Equilibria" will take
place in the Nancy Hoffman Gallery Project Space from December 13 to January
21, 2004. All works will be available for viewing in early December, 2003. |
LINDA MIEKO
ALLEN
EDUCATION
1988-89 Rhode
Island School of Design, Providence
1981 B.F.A.,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
|
| Linda
Mieko Allen, a San Francisco-based artist, works in series. Each of her
exhibitions focuses around a theme or conceptual framework, often addressing
the ideology of transitory states as part of nature and of the human body.
In her earlier series "Osmotica" she explored fluid and flow.
In her new series "Equilibria" Allen investigates varying states
of balance. She is fascinated by our need to adapt to ever-changing phenomena,
to adjust and equilibrate our beings. Balance and rebalance is, indeed,
a constant for human beings and in the cycle of nature (birth, life, death,
rebirth). Each of her paintings is a captured moment in life's flux. |
EXHIBITIONS
2004 Nancy
Hoffman Gallery, New York
1999 Cinque
Gallery, New York
Gallery Korea,
New York
"Matrices,"
Traywick Gallery, Berkeley, California
New Jersey
Center for the Arts, Summit
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| Her
new work also investigates "structures, elements and binding properties
that connect us with nature, history and the circulatory movement of life,"
the artists says. The cycles and circulatory rhythms of life are echoed
in her preference for circular shapes within the color field. Visual punctuations
of the sumptuous surface, her circles and ellipses seem to surge with the
pulse of life. Signature for Allen is her love of the color red with all
its associations, pale peach flesh and a deep earthy brown--all colors of
the body and colors one sees in nature. |
1998 "Revolver,"
Traywick Gallery, Berkeley, California
"The
Shape of Her Thoughts," Traywick Gallery, Berkeley, California
"Third
Biennial Exhibition," A.I.R. Gallery, New York
University
Art Gallery, California State University, Hayward
1997 "Get
in Here," Traywick Gallery, Berkeley, California
Matrix Gallery,
Sacramento, California
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| Inspired
by the Zen philosophy "mono no aware," a belief in the constancy
of transitional states in our lives, Allen created her new acrylic paintings
on wood. Paralleling the mysterious and hidden content of the work is Allen's
use of materials. These are not merely acrylic paintings on wood; the artist
consciously builds an organic surface through the use of many layers of
glazing and varnish. |
1996 Academy
of Art College, San Francisco
Art at Mike,
San Francisco
Art at Zia,
Berkeley, California
Site Gallery,
Los Angeles
1995 C/S
Bath Gallery, San Francisco
Open Studio
Exhibition, SOMAR Gallery, San Francisco
1994 Open
Studio Exhibition, SOMAR Art Gallery, San Francisco
|
She
inlays photographic imagery and beeswax into areas or channels of the painting's
surface. The beeswax functions like a filmy window into dream-like imagery
revealed and yet concealed, at times of voice frequencies, a visual response
to a discourse on utopian theory. Allen says of her work: "the juxtaposition
of opaque and transparent is important in the work to convey what may lie
beneath the skin." Her surfaces are sensual and lacquer-like, honoring
her heritage of being part Japanese. Some of the paintings have multiple
panels, of these she says: "the multi-panel work leads me in a direction
of questioning and challenging the space that traditional painting occupies
physically."
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1993 Marin
Theater Company, Mill Valley, California
1992 Sarah
Doyle Gallery, Brown University, Providence Rhode Island
1991 "Feast
Upon the Soul," Small Press Traffic, San Francisco
"Scarlett
Letters," Woodstock Guild's Kleinhert At Center, Woodstock, New York
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| Equilibria
continues Allen's interest in the interchangeability of the microcosm and
macrocosm, and in the individual and the collective. The immediate impact
of each painting is its color, creating a scintillating field that is visually
arresting and alluring, drawing the viewer into the deeper and more hidden
passages. While beguiling, these paintings are not about sheer beauty, they
are not without inner tensions, gritty images juxtaposed with sensuous silky
surfaces. It is the subtlety of these tensions, a mirror of life, that gives
strength and depth to Allen's work. |
1990 Eleven
East Ashland Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona
Nicole C.
Gallery, Boston
"Scenes
of Abandon," Holyoke Community College Gallery, Massachusetts
Zone Gallery,
Springfield, Massachusetts
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| Linda
Mieko Allen was born in Osaka, Japan in 1955. She received her B.F.A. from
the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and attended Rhode Island School
of Design, Providence. She has received painting residencies from Bogliasco
Foundation, Italy; Demis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska;
Djerassi Resident Artists Grant, Woodside, California; MacDowell Colony,
Peterborough, New Hampshire; Roswell Foundation, New Mexico; The Ucross
Foundation, Clearmont, Wyoming; and Weir Farm Trust, Wilton, Connecticut.
She also received a Pollock-Krasner Award, New York. |
1989 "Desire,
Rinse, Repeat," Women's Studio Workshop, Rosedale, New York
Holyoke
Community College Gallery, Massachusetts
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| Linda
Mieko Allen's work has been shown at Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art,
Northwestern University; Evanston, Illinois; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento,
California; New Jersey Center for the Arts, Summit; Rosewell Art Museum,
New Mexico; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, California;
University Art Gallery, California State Hayward, California. |
AWARDS
1999 Ucross
Foundation Residence, Clearmont, Wyoming
1997 McDowell
Award, Painting Fellowship, Peterborough, New Hampshire
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