Jerry Allen is a Canadian visual artist born in Fiske, Saskatchewan. He lives and works in Saskatoon, SK.
His art first attracted public attention in the late 1990s with innovative large-scale wall drawings and compact fictional portraits. These early works, characterized by numbering sequences in various coloured fonts, were executed directly on-site and often engaged with time-based themes that extended into his portraiture.
This diaristic approach laid the foundation for his Timeline series, which began in 2008. On New Year’s Day of that year, Allen set a personal challenge to complete a painting each month, finishing each piece by the last day regardless of its state. This project used time itself as the subject, reworking traditional concepts of record-keeping. The Timeline series has since become a cornerstone of Allen’s work, expanding to include photography, multiple paintings, and works on paper created each month.
In addition to the Timeline series, Allen’s ongoing project, Fieldwork, continues his exploration of portraiture, still life, and landscape. This series serves as a monthly diary, documenting past events and future plans, often featuring the recurring symbol of a river. The present-day river not only represents time itself, but the idea of granting nature rights and protections, emphasizes the river’s importance beyond human interests.
Allen’s work is characterized by a circalunar rhythm, that seeks to symbolizes time, by linking natural cycles to the process of depiction and recording. The work displays an intrinsic appreciation, of balance and artistic craft, revealing a unique trait in collective memory that transcends utility.

EDUCATION

BFA Concordia University

MFA University of British Columbia

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2024     330g Saskatoon, Timeline, Saskatoon, SK

2006     69 Pender, Rm. 69, Vancouver, BC 

2001     Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Roman Portraits, Vancouver, BC 

1997      Or Gallery, Rm. 112, Vancouver, BC 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

2021     Griffin Art Projects, Teeth, Loan and Trust Company, Consolidated: The Trylowsky Collection, North Vancouver, BC

2011     Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Faces, Vancouver, BC 

2006     Stride Gallery, Crazy Eights, Calgary, AB

2003     Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Belkin Invitational, Vancouver, BC

2000     Center Saiyde Bronfman Centre & Or Gallery, Hotel Motel (with Trevor Gould), Montreal, Quebec

Trylowsky Gallery, New Work: Jerry Allen, Ron Terada, Vancouver, BC

Tracey Lawrence Gallery, Head Shots, Vancouver, BC 

1999     Presentation House Gallery, Return of the Corpse, Vancouver, BC

1997     Or Gallery, It was said, Vancouver, BC

AWARDS 

British Columbia Arts Council Scholarship Award, University of British Columbia, 

BC Binning Drawing Fellowship 

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS 

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC 

VGH and UBC Foundation Art Collection, Vancouver. BC

Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC

The Trylowsky Collection, Vancouver, BC

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

2011     Watson, Anne, Faces to Stretch the mind at the Belkin, Vancouver Observer, February, Watson, Scott, Faces: Works from the Permanent Collection, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery catalogue 

2003     Richmond, Cindy, Jerry Allen, Western Living Magazine, September

2001     Scott, Michael, Jerry Allen, The Vancouver Sun, May 10 

2000     Canyon, Brice ed., Hotel Motel, Live at the End of the Century, Visible Art Society 

1998      Embry, Kerry ed., Jerry Allen: Twelve People, Front Magazine, Vol. IX, #7, December

Brayshaw, Christopher, Painting’s usefulness on display, The Courier, November 14

ARTIST WRITING

Ian Wallace, September 28, 2009, Artforum.com

Silke Otto-Knapp, August 17, 2009, Artforum.com

Science Fiction 01, July 10, 2009, Artforum.com

 

Writings