Stuart Allen is an artist whose work deals with fundamental elements of perception such as light, time, gravity and space. He has shown photographs, kites and sculpture in galleries and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad. His work is found in many private and public collections including the Tokyo Kite Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, the DiRosa Art Preserve, UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, and U.S. Embassy collections in Canada, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and the Republic of Georgia.
Allen has completed permanent public art commissions for the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada and the Police Headquarters building in Davis, CA. His work has been published in a variety of books and journals including: Picturing California’s Other Landscape: the Great Central Valley, Terra Nova: Nature and Culture, You Are Here: the Journal of Creative Geography, Zyzzyva and Artweek. Allen has lectured or served as a visiting artist at many fine institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Weisman Art Museum, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a number of university art departments nationwide.
Allen studied architecture at Kansas University and graduated from the photography and video department of the Kansas City Art Institute in 1994. He lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife Kelly Lyons, their daughter Aidan and son Vincent.
Allen is represented by the following galleries: PDNB, Dallas, TX; JayJay, Sacramento, CA; Jan Manton Art, Brisbane, Australia; Haw Contemporary, Kansas City, MO.
Stuart Allen, artist, photographer, sculptor, public art, kite, kite maker, art consultant, Jayjay, haw contemporary, pdnb gallery, science and art
Box Kite: 23,890 cu. Inches: Approximate Volume of Air I Breathe in One Hour (at rest), 2007
sailcloth, maple, spruce, stainless hardware
28.8″ x 28.8″ x 28.8″
Excerpt from a review by Michael Abetemarco, THE Magazine
… Consider Allen’s Box Kite: 23,890 cu. inches / Approximate Volume of Air / Breathe in One Hour (at rest), which is exactly what it says it is: the approximate volume of breath produced in one hour while at rest expressed in cubic inches. This information has no bearing on whether or not it can actually be flown, but like his other kites, including one designed for flying under water, it probably can. But Box Kite brings us back to the idea of constructs as the extension of breath and voice, which also have measurable qualities.
Allen’s work puts us in mind of the symbiotic relationship of man-made machines with the temporal conditions that enable their use, but with an inherent respect for the conditions themselves: ever changing despite attempts to measure and contain them.
