Life and Work
Allen received a Fine Art MA from Chelsea College of Art in 1989 and was a Henry Moore Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University from 1991-1993. From 2007-8 he was the Arts Council England Helen Chadwick Fellow at the University of Oxford and the British School at Rome.
Allen's work has appeared in many exhibitions including “Feint” at Deutsche Bank in New York, “The Float in the Sight of Things” at Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, “Mesmer” at temporarycontemporary in London, “Con Art” at Site Gallery in Sheffield, "Scarecrow" in Metzova Greece, and "Variety" at the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill on Sea, UK, the first Singapore Biennale, "The Dictionary of War" in Berlin, "Kalanag" at David Risley Gallery London, 'The Great Transformation - Art & Tactical Magic' at Frankfurter Kunstverein, and 'Adventureland Golf' at the Grundy Art Gallery Hull.
In 2002, Allen instigated the international group show "Con Art" with American curator Helen Varola and Carol Maund which explored art and conjuring’s shared principles of ‘cunning and conning’ through a gallery exhibition (including Mark Wallinger, Simon Patterson, Sarah Charlesworth, and others), a symposium (chaired by Susan Hiller), and a live performance event including, amongst others, Forced Entertainment, Ursula Martinez, and Tommy Angel. In 2010, he co-curated the Hayward Gallery touring exhibition 'Magic Show' with the writer Sally O'Reilly.
Allen writes widely on art and cultural history for visual art journals including Contemporary (magazine), Tate Etc, and Cabinet magazine, for which he guest-edited an issue dedicated to magic in 2007. His work as Tommy Angel was the subject of a feature article in the Las Vegas-published Magic (magazine) in February 2006. Allen is a member of The Magic Circle, the UK organisation for professional magicians, and an associate curator of The Magic Circle Museum.
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