Edited by Nino Mier, Caroline Scarcliffe. Text by Lauren Elkin, Sara Kallas.
Evoking human presence through absence, Allen paints shadows cast across walls, furniture and fabrics as quiet traces of lived experience
In a process she describes as a "quiet observational approach," British artist Jess Allen (born 1966) captures the human shadow—draped across rippling fabrics, angled across doorways or illuminated within window frames. Her oil on linen compositions thus encapsulate the notions of both absence and presence, as the subject exists both inside and outside the world of the painting. Allen believes that our shadows are reflections of our souls: "always present with us, sometimes hidden, but revealed through our relationship with the light." Linen-bound with a hot foil-embossed cover, Shadow/Self is the first monograph on Allen's work, focusing on this celebrated series that explores memory, presence and the passage of time.
STATUS: Forthcoming | 12/15/2026
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Published by Mier Books. Edited by Nino Mier, Caroline Scarcliffe. Text by Lauren Elkin, Sara Kallas.
Evoking human presence through absence, Allen paints shadows cast across walls, furniture and fabrics as quiet traces of lived experience
In a process she describes as a "quiet observational approach," British artist Jess Allen (born 1966) captures the human shadow—draped across rippling fabrics, angled across doorways or illuminated within window frames. Her oil on linen compositions thus encapsulate the notions of both absence and presence, as the subject exists both inside and outside the world of the painting. Allen believes that our shadows are reflections of our souls: "always present with us, sometimes hidden, but revealed through our relationship with the light." Linen-bound with a hot foil-embossed cover, Shadow/Self is the first monograph on Allen's work, focusing on this celebrated series that explores memory, presence and the passage of time.
