Even Allen

Nov 1, 2024 | corridor8.co.uk | Even Allen |Orla Foster

Two women from different times connected through a shared sense of playfulness – that was my first impression on arriving at Barnsley Civic for Memories of Drawings/Ulterior Motifs. Both artists offer up flirtations with flatness – landscapes like scenes dropping in and out at the back of a stage. We fill in the blanks, enjoying the deceit. The first artist is Georgia O’Keeffe, the ‘Mother of American modernism’: furtive, contemplative.

Oct 28, 2024 | nowthenmagazine.com | Even Allen

I’ve worked in the creative industries in Sheffield for a number of years, and it’s evident to me that our city punches above its weight in terms of output but is sorely lacking in the infrastructure to support and nurture talent. But the recent consultation over the future of the former Cole Brothers building gives the city the opportunity to invest in arts and culture in a new and vibrant way. It’s my hope that Urban Splash as developers of the building will take heed and address this shortfall.

Aug 1, 2024 | corridor8.co.uk | Jazmine Linklater |Even Allen |Lucy Holt |Stephanie Gavan

Approaching the Grundy I’m struck by feelings of familiarity and return. The banners outside announcing Garth Gratrix’s largest solo show to date, Flamboyant Flamingos, are recognisably the shade of paint ‘Flamboyant Flamingo’. Back in 2021 the entire floor space of the Abingdon Studios show, Many Splendored Things, was painted in this bright, peachy pink.

Nov 28, 2023 | corridor8.co.uk | Even Allen |Amrit Randhawa |Marcus Barnett |Joanna Jowett

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside! Scarborough offers up fish and chips on tap and the clanking of penny arcades, familiar waves lulling us into a nostalgic reverie. The coastal town is often depicted as a patriotic Victorian throwback – a dream of a place that perhaps never even existed. Wind breakers, Britannia and cockles. Arcadia for the cash strapped.

Jul 27, 2023 | corridor8.co.uk | Ella Otomewo |Even Allen |Uma Breakdown |Emma Curd

Queer writer and philosopher Simon(e) van Saarloos speaks of rules as ‘physical, integrated knowledge; you follow the rules without questioning them’.1 This, they say, results in scenarios, relationships and games that lose their playful character where ‘nothing new is created any longer’. These ideas were playing on my mind whilst I explored Luke Beech’s first solo exhibition Winner Breaks First at Humber Street Gallery in Hull.