Linda Mieko Allen | Nancy Hoffman Gallery

LINDA MIEKO ALLEN
December 4, 2004 to January 4, 2005

Each of Linda Mieko Allen's exhibitions focuses around a theme or conceptual framework, often addressing the ideology of transitory states as part of nature and of the human body. Her recent work investigates structures, elements, and binding properties that connect us to nature, history and the circulatory movement of life. "Fractional" is the word Allen uses to "describe the concept and process of building a system of transitions and tensions between 'small elements' that make up a whole." As the artist says: "large and small phenomena are interchangeable in a metaphysical architecture." Symbiosis and syntheses occur simultaneously, while quiet explosions bring a new visual and visceral charge to the work. In the "Fractional" paintings, the artist continues to use her signature palette backgrounds of deep sensual red, warm golden beige, rich chocolate brown and sleek black.

Linda Mieko Allen, Equilibria IX
(in the theory), 2004, mixed media
on wood panel, 11 x 11 inches

Linda Mieko Allen, Equilibria X
(black breath), 2004, mixed media
on wood panel, 11 x 11 inches

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction III
2004, mixed media
on wood panel, 18 x 18 inches

Linda Mieko Allen builds her paintings on wood panels with many layers of glazes and varnish, creating an organic lacquer-like surface, seductive and mysterious in appearance. While primarily abstract in nature, Allen often incorporates imagery, which she alters and inlays into the painting's surface. She covers her dream-like images with wax encaustic, revealing and concealing transparent passages in the painting's opaque shining surface. The juxtaposition of transparent and opaque give the viewer a sense of what lies beneath the surface skin, a sense of discovery.

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction II
2004, mixed media
on wood panel, 18 x 18 inches

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction IV
2004, mixed media
on wood panel, 18 x 18 inches

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction I
2004, mixed media
on wood panel, 24 x 24 inches

As "small elements" in her "Fractional" works, the artist paints staccato squares, rectangles, linear passages to animate the surface, each a different color, each contributing energy, rhythm and tension to the composition, which seems to exude a musical air. The rectilinear shapes dance across the surface, as do the ellipses and circles in her "Equilibria" series, also included in this exhibition.

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction VII
2004, mixed media on wood panel
48 x 48 inches

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction VI
2004, mixed media on wood panel
48 x 48 inches

In the "Equilibria" paintings, 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 as in the cycle of nature (birth, life, death, rebirth). Each of her paintings is a captured moment in life's flux. 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. While beguiling, these paintings are not about sheer beauty or an elegance of taste. The works are not without inner tensions, or gritty images juxtaposed with sensuous silky surfaces. Mirroring life's complexities, the subtlety of these tensions gives strength and depth to Allen's work.

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction VIII
2004, mixed media on wood panel
48 x 32 inches

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction IX
2004, mixed media on wood panel
48 x 32 inches

Linda Mieko Allen, Fraction V
2004, mixed media on wood panel
48 x 30 inches

Linda Mieko Allen was born in Osaka, Japan. 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.

Linda Mieko Allen
Hybrid I, 73 x 5 inches
Hybrid II, 63 x 3 inches
Hybrid III, 75 x 4 inches
Hybrid IV, 70 x 4 inches
Hybrid V, 67 x 4 inches
Hybrid VI, 64 x 4 inches
Hybrid VII, 68 x 3 inches
mixed media on wood panel, 2004

The artist'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; Roswell Art Museum, New Mexico; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, California; University Art Gallery, California State Hayward, California.

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