The work + The artist
Allison James is a contemporary abstract painter.
James is continually inspired by the messy (but thrilling) human experience. Her work is fueled by personal events and memories, along with conversations overheard from strangers and inside storybooks. James reconfigures these felt emotions into a preferred outcome, translating feeling into her own abstracted storytelling.
With this trio of internal processing, Allison is able to construct a new visual narrative of self through her paintings, each piece emanating with saturated color and subtle details. She uses her training as a representational artist and printmaker to build up her signature silhouettes with layers of thin paint, elusive details and recognizable shapes that she endearingly refers to as her ‘decoder ring things.’
James believes a painting can be many things at once, just like people (and most things in life). The cathartic creation processes and making work that feels substantial within its own existence is what keeps her coming back for more. Allison believes her work as a mirror for all of us to see ourselves more clearly, with love and acceptance — all in due time.
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Allison James has a BFA in Painting, Printmaking and Drawing. She has been seen and featured in various media, including The New York Times, The Bad on Paper podcast, Architectural Digest, Medium, Midwest Living and Atlanta Magazine. She has been in group shows around the US. Allison currently works and lives in middle Georgia.