The Water In The Well | 9 March - 15 April 2023

“... Tim’s paintings seem to me to be a playful participant in our funny and shallow conversations, and at the same time, continuous with the seriousness of the art of the past. With our own seriousness, which we still have somewhere.”

- Matthew Collings, 2023

LONDON, 9 March, 2023 - JGM Gallery presents The Water In The Well, an exhibition of works on canvas and paper by Tim Allen.

These are archetypal works by Allen in that they are vast and mesmeric, straddling the border between abstraction and representation. What signifies a novel approach by Allen is the added emphasis on transience and impermanence. This is conveyed, primarily, with the use of a grainer’s brush. The parallel markings achieved with this tool have previously been used by Allen to render a variety of atmospheric effects: Bacon-esque curtains, rippling air, reflective surfaces between the viewer and a horizon. In The Water In The Well, Allen uses them to establish rounded apertures. There are many associations that one might draw between these and a clock, or the orbit of a globe, but it is the brushstrokes themselves that most convey this feeling of transience and the passage of time. Unlike the reduced landscape beneath, these openings are painted in a way that exposes their technical architecture. As Allen’s brush runs out of paint, he continues to drag it, conspicuously indicating where each mark begins and ends. That is, a chronology of movement and action is established.

There is also a melodic quality to these works, as the parallel lines seem to mimic blank staves. In this context the rest of the composition - the flecks of paint, layers upon layers of colour - can be thought of as the painting’s musical notes.

Allen says of the work that “... the brushstrokes that I use generate something that’s akin to the way that we experience the real world... because they allow for a complex layering which is very similar to how we sense depth or sense space. There’s a sense of tracking that allows the viewer to go on a journey with the work.”

If the viewer is made aware of time and impermanence by these spirals, then rectangles - usually established with a horizontal line cutting through the canvas - suggests something more spatial. In fact, were it not for these horizontal lines, a landscape might not be suggested at all. There is a solidity to these areas of colour, which clarifies what might otherwise be a somewhat confused arrangement. With these two shapes - rectangles and circles - Allen generates an aesthetic and conceptual tension, masterfully demonstrating his compositional instincts.

Jennifer Guerrini Maraldi, the Director of JGM Gallery, states that “Tim’s work has always had a profound effect on me. He has a consummate understanding of his craft and how it can push and prod the nervous system of his audience.”

There is, in these works, the aesthetic quality of a black hole, a sublime expression of the tension between time and space. When and where we are, however, is never clear.

For further information and press enquiries, please contact the gallery at info@jgmgallery.com or + 44 (0) 207 228 6027.

Opening Reception:

Thursday_, March 9, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

24 Howie St, Battersea, London

For a full catalogue of works, please contact info@jgmgallery.com.