Roberta Allen places the most banal and seemingly insignificant things—bits of Scotch tape, cellophane candy wrappers, a pile of paper chads made with a hole punch, at the center of her work. Stamped out by the billions into the most efficient forms possible, these small things are ubiquitous; yet they exist at the very edge of our consciousness. Drawing out the abstract patterns inherent in the repetitious nature of the minutia of everyday life, Allen brings these ephemeral objects back into view. In “Dreaming of a Square” for example, an intaglio print is deconstructed into hundreds of identical circular punch holes, then reconstructed to produce a richly patterned abstract collage. In “The Center of Dust”, Allen begins by lifting the ink impregnated paper fibers of an intaglio print with the sticky side of lengths of Scotch tape, which she then cuts up into square segments and organizes like mosaics into shimmering, jewel-like collages. In Allen’s work, the rational geometric patterns of the cold industrial machine are transformed into highly personal meditations on the artist’s power to transform the everyday world.
Patricia Briggs is a writer and independent curator. She teaches Art History and Critical Studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
A native of Boston, MA, Roberta Allen has exhibited her work—paintings, drawings, prints, collages, and mixed media—in numerous group and solo shows, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Plains Art Museum, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin and many other universities, art centers and galleries throughout the country. A graduate in studio arts and art history from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, she also earned a B.S. Degree in Art Education from Tufts University and did post graduate independent study at the Museum School. She was recipient of an artist assistance fellowship from the Minnesota State Arts Board, was a finalist for a fellowship from the Massachusetts Council for the Arts, and her work is in numerous private collections. Since moving to Minneapolis in 1995, she has become an active member of Highpoint Center for Printmaking, a cooperative of Twin Cities printmakers.