Phillip Allen. Deepdrippings

About

Kerlin Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of new paintings by Phillip Allen. Deepdrippings is Allen’s fourth solo exhibition at Kerlin Gallery.

For the duration of his career, Phillip Allen has shown a commitment to exploring the sculptural qualities of paint. In Deepdrippings, the artist continues to challenge the medium with a new series of abstract paintings, the culmination of several years’ sustained artistic attention. Painted on board, these are heavy and substantial paintings, intensively worked and re-worked for up to five years. 

Whilst previous work has seen Allen challenge our perception of depth, these new paintings instead privilege surface over illusion. Shapes and forms buzz and hover as if in mid-air; jostling for our attention, rather than receding into the distance. Rather than depth, Deepdrippings instead becomes an exploration of density, with tar-like globules almost fizzing on the surface of the paintings. This is intensified in Allen’s highly condensed smaller works, which in their minute brilliance recall neutron stars – the smallest but most densely packed celestial objects in existence, of which a teaspoon-sized amount would weigh about 10 million tonnes.

The new work presented in Deepdrippings thus marks a significant development in Allen's practice, but as pointed out by the art critic John Yau (Hyperallergic), ‘For all the radical changes that Allen has made … his long preoccupation with paint as matter has become increasingly evident.’ This body of work is no different, placing paint and its many possibilities centre stage, and using it to establish a new language and form of communication, articulated through suggestion, insinuation and indirect expression.

Phillip Allen graduated from the Royal College of Art, London in 1992. Recent solo exhibitions include Dolph Projects (2016); The Approach, London (2014, 2011 & 2008); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2013, 2009 & 2005); Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2007, 2005); Milton Keynes Gallery, UK (2006); and MoMA PS1, New York (2003).  International group shows include CCA Andratx, Mallorca (2012); Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong SAR (2011); Fabio Tiboni Arte Contemporanea, Bologna, Italy; The City Gallery, Leicester, UK (2009); Tate Britain, London (2009) and the British Art Show 6.

For further information, please contact Rosa Abbott, rosa@kerlin.ie.