Phillip Allen
Kerlin Gallery is pleased to announce
Deep Waiting
an exhibition of new painting by Phillip Allen.
In his latest body of work, Phillip Allen’s fifth solo presentation with the gallery marks a vibrant evolution in the artist’s long-standing exploration of abstraction, materiality and the painted edge.
Described by art critic John Yau as “one of the great painters of his generation”, Phillip Allen has refused to settle into any one mode or style, choosing instead to continually push the possibilities of the picture plane resulting in paintings that are sculptural, optical and joyously excessive. Dense accretions of acrylic and oil paint form thick, encrusted borders that frame finely worked interior fields. Within these interiors, rhythmic geometries, spiralling motifs and kaleidoscopic colour sequences unfold with a sense of buoyant improvisation.
'Deep Waiting' reflects Allen’s ongoing interest in the mechanics of looking. Repetition, mirroring and near-symmetry lure the viewer into optical loops, while shifting palettes—moving from acidic neons to cool mineral tones—create a sense of movement that is almost musical. Throughout, Allen balances exuberance with control, humour with discipline, ornament with structure.
Phillip Allen’s new paintings reaffirm his status as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary abstraction, continually reimagining what painting can be: an object, an image, or a cosmic experience.
Phillip Allen
Object Wants (hard repition version), 2025
oil on board
150 x 130 cm / 59.1 x 51.2 in
Phillip Allen
are we guests (stubbed motiff I version), 2025
oil on board
135 x 125 cm / 53.1 x 49.2 in
Phillip Allen
dry chord, wet edge (hard repetition version), 2025
oil on board
80 x 70 cm / 31.5 x 27.6 in
Phillip Allen
dry chord wet edge (solar guest version), 2025
oil on board
55 x 40 cm / 21.7 x 15.7 in
Phillip Allen
Objects wants (wet edge gambit), 2025
oil on board
50 x 40 cm / 19.7 x 15.7 in
Phillip Allen
Flat Space Thinking (Addictive shape formation), 2025
oil on board
135 x 125 cm / 53.1 x 49.2 in
Phillip Allen
compulsion loops (wet edge version), 2025
oil on board
55 x 40 cm / 21.7 x 15.7 in
Phillip Allen
ruin for sleepers (Unkind endgame), 2025
oil on board
61 x 51 cm / 24 x 20.1 in
Phillip Allen
low memory (rough edge variation), 2025
oil on board
60 x 50 cm / 23.6 x 19.7 in
Phillip Allen
b. 1967, London, United Kingdom.
A relentless experimenter, he has refused to settle into any one mode or style, instead choosing to continually push the boundaries of his chosen medium. This chameleonic approach has seen him pivot from geometric semi-figurative landscapes to soft, disintegrated abstraction, to highly sculptural and textured impasto paintings on board. Consistent throughout this varied output has been Allen’s ingenuity as a colourist, his radical rethinking of pictorial space and depth, and his devotion to the materiality of paint – its plasticity, texture and sculptural properties. But although Allen’s practice is rooted in these very physical, formalist concerns, the resulting paintings can feel ethereal, cosmic, sublime – as if liberated from the very materiality Allen set out to explore. Often featuring fluid, spiralling or coalescing forms, they feel associative, hallucinatory, playful, with titles that display an irreverent sense of humour and curiosity.
Phillip Allen’s work has been exhibited at Tate Britain, London; the British Art Show; CCA Andratx, Mallorca; the Heritage Museum, Hong Kong; The Total Museum, Seoul; and in a solo presentation at MoMA PS1, New York. His work can be found in the collection of the Tate, London; Arts Council of England; British Council and the UK Government Art Collection.