The Light between Us, 2023
Through quiet, luminous domestic scenes culled from her own experience, Jess Allen evokes universal emotions like longing and contentment. Doctored details—like blank book pages, or allusions to previous paintings—reveal Allen’s works to be composites. These images fold memory and imagination into photographic source material, nodding to the slippery nature of time. Like memories, shadows are intangible records of a place and time, and Allen uses them to great effect—often, to suggest a subject outside of the frame. By collapsing the distance between subject and spectator, the artist creates opportunities for connection. Allen studied art at Camberwell College of Arts and Falmouth School of Art. She has had solo exhibitions in London and New York.