Ron Allen is a magician of the commonplace, evoking the human condition in all its unguarded beauty. His formal allegories of everyday experience contain relics of outworn fantasies and dreams. For the observer it’s a way to look at life’s maze of objects that we encounter daily, arranged as memory skirts which invoke choices we make: what’s important or what needs to be left behind? He works with ideas contained in all of art history from primitive ritual artifacts to Cycladic sculpture.

The sheer impact of 100 objects in relationship to the human figure is what drives Allen. Visually, he finds the hanging of the modern fetishes an exciting expression of our humanity. Allen’s nail fetishes are reminiscent of the Kongo art form Nkisi where the sculpture is used for the Shaman, called Nkondi, who deals with people’s problems. Allen was moved to discover that half way round the world other indigenous artists were portraying something so close to his own heart. For Allen the Shaman witnesses the person’s relationship with the supernatural guardian of our collective memories.

Allen smoothly blends his multicultural background by honoring his Blackfeet ancestors, as influenced in his strong visions, and merged with a European sense of mythology. After twenty years, his collectors now span the globe on four continents, as well as his numerous domestic collectors.

Selected exhibitions: North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND Moorhead Museum of Art, Moorhead, MN Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK Arts Place II, Oklahoma City, OK Governors Gallery, Oklahoma City, OK Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS (collection) Seminole Nation Museum, Wewoka, OK

Publications: Oklahoma Magazine, Oklahoma Gazette, Santa Fe Reporter, Santa Fe New Mexican / Pasatiempo

Education: Oklahoma State University, Dallas Art Institute, Moorhead State University.