Untitled (Paradox Series), 2018

About the Paradox Sculptures:
The "Paradox" series confronts the impossibility of returning to one's childhood, but the yearning to reach that young part of oneself.The desire to return to and the impossibility of returning to a state of innocence is conveyed through the acts of stacking, moving around, taking apart, matching, sorting, grouping, adding, subtracting, coloring, using wood parts of children's model kits--trucks, trains, etc.--and other wood parts.

About Roberta Allen:
From 1973-81, Roberta Allen showed alongside Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Carl Andre and others at John Weber Gallery in New York. Her conceptual art, combining text and image, has included drawings, collages, artist books, photo/text works, installations, digital prints and sculpture. 30 one-person and over 100 group exhibitions have taken place in galleries and museums internationally. She has work in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum and MoMA among other public and private collections. Most of her drawings, prints, photographs and collages have been acquired by The Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

In her work which originates in language, she explores how text informs or changes our perception of images. Playing with possibility, she creates her own contexts and defines subjective views as facts. Her interpretations, sometimes humorous, which may or may not ring true to viewers may nevertheless lead them to reflect upon their own experience.

A Tennessee Williams Fellow in Fiction and a Yaddo Fellow, Roberta is a micro, flash and short story writer, novelist and memoirist with nine published books, including her latest, The Princess of Herself, a story collection. Her writing papers have been acquired by The Fales Archive at NYU.

Roberta lived briefly in Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, and Mexico. Her travels, often alone, include Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Central America, Mali (for the New York Times Magazine) and the Peruvian Amazon which inspired her memoir about her trip alone. Her travels inspired many of her stories and her novel.

She taught creative writing at The New School for many years and has taught at Columbia University, NYU and other schools. Starting in 1991, she taught groups for many years in private workshops. Now she teaches 1-on-1 classes on Zoom.

"The reemergence of an artist is a wonderful thing, but when that artist is as talented as Roberta Allen, then it is truly a joyous occasion."
--HYPERALLERGIC

Select Museum Collections:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NYC
Bibliotheque du France, Paris, France
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT.
Athenaeum, Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA
Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy
Smithsonian Archives of American Art (Artist papers), Washington, D.C.

Select Solo Exhibitions:
2017 Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA.
2014 Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
1989 Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Western Australia
1981 Galerie Walter Storms, Munich, Germany
1981 Kunstforum, Stadt. Galerie im Lembachhaus, Munich, Germany
1981 Galleria Primo Piano, Rome, Italy
1980 P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
1979 John Weber Gallery, NYC
1978 Hal Bromm Gallery, NYC
1978 MTL Galerie, Brussels, Belgium
1978 Fine Arts Center, C.W. Post College, Glenvale, LI., NY
1977 Galerie Maier-Hahn, Dusseldorf, Germany
1977 John Weber Gallery, NYC
1977 Franklin Furnace, NYC
1977 P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
1975 John Weber Gallery, NYC
1974 John Weber Gallery, NYC
1974 Galleria Toselli, Milan, Italy
1967 Galerie 845, Amsterdam, Netherlands