January 16 through March 28, 2010
Paton | Smith | Della Penna-Fernberger Galleries

Lynne Allen explores the role of the aggressor and the oppressed from both the individual and collective points of view in her work. Drawing on her Sioux heritage, Allen often uses metaphors to look beneath the surface of our cultural perceptions of identity as well as the exploitation of those who are marginalized, specifically Native Americans. Her images call into question our collective conclusions about the labels we assign, and invite the viewer to wonder if aggressors are, in the final analysis, also the victims of their own need to dominate and torment others. Allen creates complex, multi-layered imagery that combines diverse materials such as goat skin and Chinese tissue. She employs a wide range of techniques, including lithograph, silkscreen and intaglio (a form of printmaking in which the ink adheres in the incised lines and not the raised surfaces of the paper).

"As a visual artist," she says, "I incorporate the passions that drive me personally into a bigger reality." Formerly the Director of the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, Lynne Allen is currently Director of the School of Visual Arts at Boston University. Her work has been included in more than a hundred exhibitions in the U.S., and can be found in such major collections as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Library of Congress and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth, Minnesota, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Also a leader in the international print world, Allen has lectured widely in North America as well as in Poland, Estonia, Israel, Russia, Sweden, Jordan, Canada and South Africa. Until her recent appointment to Boston University, Allen resided in Furlong, Bucks County.

Both the Lynne Allen and the Hedi Kyle exhibitions were organized as part of Philagrafika 2010, a contemporary, international, printmaking festival. More than a hundred exhibitions and programs at arts institutions in the Philadelphia area were held from January through April 2010 as part of the festival.

Images, left to right: Lynne Allen, Mourning Bag, 2009, photogravure, H. 21 x W. 17 inches. Lynne Allen, Rider, (detail), 2009, photogravure, H. 21 x W. 17 inches.