Select Portfolio - Stuart Allen
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
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Archive

September 17, 2022

Creek Lines

Creek Lines, 2022
Collaborating partner: Cade Bradshaw
stainless steel, mirror finish aluminum, epoxy color flake
22 x 26 x 20.5 ft.
Public Commission

Creek Lines is a stainless steel sculpture located at the San Pedro Creek Culture Park’s Plaza de Fundación. 30 stainless pipes, bent in the shape of San Pedro Creek’s course, undulate upward to meet a reflective canopy. The canopy is an abstraction of the San Pedro Creek Watershed, which funnels water to the sculpture’s creek shaped void during rain events.

At the center of San Antonio’s history, San Pedro Creek has literally shaped the city. It has guided the movement of its inhabitants for over 300 years, forming a complex weave of migratory, urban, and ecological pathways. We want visitors to the San Pedro Creek Culture Park to consider the importance of this line, and its relationship to San Antonio’s rich cultural legacy.

Engineering: 
Structural Design Consulting, Wimberley, TX

Fabrication:
River City Industries, San Antonio
Lytex Welding, San Antonio
Tube-Tec Bending, Houston
Kuest Corp, San Antonio
Etched, Kansas City
CSM Concrete Coatings, San Antonio
Cade Bradshaw and Stuart Allen

Commissioning Agency
San Antonio River Authority with funding from Bexar County

April 3, 2021

32° 42′ 47” N ~ 117° 14′ 09″ W

32° 42′ 47” N ~ 117° 14′ 09″ W, 2021
sailcloth, white mahogany, stainless steel
120″ x 36″ x 34″ each piece
Private Commission

Two suspended works commissioned for the foyer of a private residence in San Diego, California, USA. Natural light falls on the sail-based forms throughout the day, emphasizing the home’s fluid relationship between interior and exterior spaces.

Fabrication:
Stuart Allen and Cade Bradshaw

Art Consultant
Megan Bryan, San Diego, CA

May 1, 2021

Pixel Clouds

The Pixel Cloud drawings are 3 dimensional graphs of each unique pixel color in a digital photograph. Using statistical software, I export the red, green and blue values of every pixel in a photograph to a data file. This dataset is reduced to a set of unique color occurrences, and these pixels are plotted in 3D space along 256-step red, green and blue axes. Dotted gray lines define the plot boundaries. I rotate the Pixel Cloud about its three axes to find the most compelling view. The work’s title describes the content of the source photograph and the number of unique pixel colors.

The source photographs for the Pixel Clouds are images of food. The color of the food on our plates or in our glasses deeply influences our experience of flavor. The notion that we first “eat with our eyes” is a common theme in food-based experimental psychology, commonly labeled “gastrophysics.” Researchers have famously served wine tasters a white wine dyed red, and the manipulated color significantly altered the taster’s experience of flavor; a significant majority identified the dyed white wine as a red (reference). Other experiments suggest that our current foodie culture and the barrage of ‘food porn’ photography found in the media may fuel the obesity crisis (reference).

The color of food sets our expectations and drives our appetites. Humans tend to avoid blue foods due to the color’s association with spoiled and/or poisonous sources. We typically perceive green foods as healthy. The color red is often cited as an appetite stimulant, thus the preponderance of red restaurant logos (reference).

The relationship between color and flavor is complex and nuanced. Beet red sets our expectations for deep, earthy flavor, while strawberry red signals sweetness. When the pictorial information has been removed, only the color signal remains. The Pixel Clouds reside in this nuanced space.

Stuart Allen, 2021
Data science by Dr. Jennifer Rudgers

December 14, 2020

Oculus

Oculus, 2020
stainless steel, concrete
18′ x 12′ x 4′ (plaza dimension: 28 foot diameter)
Permanent installation: Kansas University Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas

Oculus is sited in a courtyard outside of the Health Education Building on the Kansas University Medical Center Campus. It references the physiology of the human eye, specifically, the rods and cones of the retina. The circular plaza upon which is rests completes the eyeball reference, including a stained ‘lens’ section at the plaza entrance. The sculpture is oriented due west, aligning the setting sun with the stainless steel tubes on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox.

Oculus is a meditation on seeing, both the physical nature of sight, but also what it means to be ‘seen’ in the context of modern medicine.

Engineering:
Structural Design Consulting, Wimberly, TX

Fabrication:
River City Industries, San Antonio, TX
Lodder Concrete, Kansas City, MO
San Antonio Powder Coating, San Antonio, TX

Collection of the Kansas University Medical Center
Commissioned by the KU Endowment with support from the George & Annette Murphy Fund

June 19, 2020

Fort Lauderdale Four

Fort Lauderdale Four, 2020
sailcloth, cherry, stainless steel
65″ x 171″ x 42″
Permanent installation: Hyatt Centric Hotel, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

One of two pieces commissioned for the main lobby of the Hyatt Centric Hotel on the New River in Ft. Lauderdale Florida.

Fabrication:
Stuart Allen and Cade Bradshaw

Art Consultant
Kalisher, North Carolina

June 19, 2020

Fort Lauderdale Three

Fort Lauderdale Three, 2020
sailcloth, cherry, stainless steel
94″ x 54″ x 12″
Permanent installation: Hyatt Centric Hotel, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

One of two pieces commissioned for the main lobby of the Hyatt Centric Hotel on the New River in Ft. Lauderdale Florida.

Fabrication:
Stuart Allen and Cade Bradshaw

Art Consultant
Kalisher, North Carolina

June 5, 2018

Reflect

Reflect, 2018
mirror finish stainless steel, painted steel
40′ x 21′ x 28′
Permanent installation: Hemisfair Park, San Antonio, TX

Reflect is integrated into the playground area at Hemisfair Park’s Yanaguana Garden, creating a canopy over a large-scale play structure.  The sculpture is a series of stainless-steel ribbon forms suspended from a robust, bent steel tubing frame. Its organic shape harmonizes with the play equipment and the adjacent promenade’s shade structure.

The mirror finish of the ribbons reflects and refracts the surrounding landscape, buildings and, most importantly, the children and adults using the playground. The arrangement of the sculpture creates dappled shade over the playground that changes with the movement of the sun.

Engineering:
Structural Design Consulting, Wimberly, TX

Fabrication:
Bendco, Houston
River City Industries, San Antonio
TCL Construction, San Antonio
Lytex Welding, San Antonio
Texas Professional Painting, San Antonio

Collection of the City of San Antonio
Commissioned through Public Art San Antonio
Additional support: Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation (HPARC)

September 1, 2018

Watershed Wall

Watershed Wall, 2018
stainless steel
16′ x 12′ x 1″
Permanent installation: Confluence Park, San Antonio, TX

Collaboration with Cade Bradshaw

This cut steel graphic represents the creeks and rivers of the San Antonio River Watershed. Water falling inside the boundaries of a watershed flows downstream towards a common outlet. Rainfall as far north as Kerr and Bandera counties travels along the Medina, Cibolo, San Antonio, and Guadalupe Rivers before terminating at San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. Quenching the thirst of people, plants, and animals along its course, the San Antonio River and its many tributaries are an essential part of life in Central and South Texas.

Commissioned by the San Antonio River Foundation

April 28, 2017

Paper Cloud

Paper Cloud, 2017
bond paper, wire, staples, LED tape light
45′ x 40′ x 18′
Temporary installation: Light Building, San Antonio, TX

Paper Cloud is an installation of 140 unique paper lights. The project is coordinated and executed by Stuart Allen and Cade Bradshaw (Bridge Projects).

Paper Cloud was initially created as a temporary installation for the 2017 AIA San Antonio Beaux Arts Ball at the Light Building in San Antonio, TX. It was a collaborative endeavor, constructed by more than 70 individuals. Over the course of eight workshops, more than 800 person hours went into its construction and installation.

Contributions and In-kind Support:
AIA San Antonio
Gray Street Partners
Lake Flato Architects
Armstrong Ceilings
Marek Bros.
ERT Lights
Stellar Light

Collaborating partners and firms:
AIA San Antonio
Alamo Architects
BPI
Cadeshack
ERT Lighting
Ford Powell Carson
Lake Flato Architects
LPA Architects
San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation
Overland Architects
PBK Architects
SA2020
San Antonio College
Stellar Light
Trinity University
University of Texas, San Antonio

December 15, 2016

Paper Sky

Paper Sky, 2016
bond paper, wire, staples, LED lights
25′ x 12.5′ x 5′

Temporary installation: AP Art Lab, San Antonio, TX

Designed by Stuart Allen, Cade Bradshaw and Robert Amerman, Paper Sky was created by a group of 13 artists and non-artists. Participants created 18 paper modules that make up the final installation. Adhering to specific structural constraints, each module exhibits individual artistry in the variety of folds and contours. Constructed with humble materials – bond paper, wire and staples (lots and lots of staples) – the completed installation is surprisingly transformative. Building on the strength found in numbers, the group’s collective effort yields a result that is greater than the sum of its parts.

The makers of Paper Sky are friends and colleagues. This piece is made by their hands and energy. They are:

Vincent Allen-Lyons
Robert Amerman
Bryce Harlow
Alan Janzen
Megan DeMers Janzen
Kelly Lyons
Teresa Maslonka
Kristen Payne
Nick Polito
Christina Scott
Matthew Scott