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{{Short description|American conceptual artist and fiction writer (b. 1945)}}
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{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Roberta Allen
| name = Roberta Allen
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| death_place =
| death_place =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
| occupation = {{flatlist|
⚫
* Conceptual artist
* Writer
* Fiction writer
* sculptor
* photographer
⚫
* conceptual artist
* educator
}}
}}
| nationality = [[United States]]
| nationality = American
| period = 1960s–present
| period = 1960s–present
| genre =
| genre =
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}}
}}


'''Roberta Allen''' is a conceptual artist and fiction writer who explores ways in which language changes or informs perception of images. She is known for her multi-media conceptual works. She has appeared in over one hundred group exhibitions worldwide.
'''Roberta Allen''' is a short story writer, novelist, memoirist, conceptual artist, sculptor, photographer, and creative writing instructor. Language has been the inspiration for both her writing and her art. In her conceptual works - which include drawings, collages, artist books, photo/text works, installations and digital prints - she explores how text informs or changes our perception of images, often with more than a hint of humor and a philosophical bent. With dark humor, her books present characters at odds with themselves and others, sometimes in exotic locales.


==Early life==
==Early life and travels==


Roberta Allen is a [[New York City|New York]]-based artist who was born and raised in New York, NY. At age twenty, she traveled alone to Europe and lived briefly in [[Athens]], [[Amsterdam]] and [[Berlin]], later in [[Mexico]]. Over the years, she traveled, often alone, to the Peruvian Amazon, [[Indonesia]], [[Turkey]], [[Egypt]], [[Mali]] and countries in Central America.
Allen was born and raised in [[New York City|New York]] NY. At the age of twenty, she traveled alone to Europe and lived briefly in [[Athens]], [[Amsterdam]] and [[Berlin]], and later in [[Mexico]]. Over the years, she has traveled, often alone, to the Peruvian Amazon, [[Indonesia]], [[Turkey]], [[Egypt]], [[Mali]],<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Mali Adventure, From Timbuktu to Dogon Country|first=Roberta |last=Allen|date=September 17, 1995|page=24|magazine=New York Times Style Magazine|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/17/t-magazine/mali-adventure-from-timbuktu-to-dogon-country.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QU0.wrQQ.EkqEdKr3roCx&smid=url-share}}</ref> and countries in Central America. Her travels have inspired many of her stories.


==Art career==
==Art career==
Allen is known for her conceptual works, which combine image and text, and include drawings, collages, artist books,<ref name="possibilities">{{cite book |last=Allen |first=Roberta |url=http://www.schuelke-finebooks.com/buch/1686/possibilities/ |title=Possibilities |date=1977 |publisher=Parasol Press Ltd |author-mask=1}}</ref> photo/text series, sculpture and installations. Her works in the early 1970s were inspired by [[Søren Kierkegaard|Kierkegaard]]’s belief that our deepest experiences occur in the form of contradictions, and that wherever there is contradiction, humor is present. Through the 1970s, she exhibited alongside [[Sol LeWitt]], [[Robert Ryman]] and [[Carl Andre]], among others, at John Weber Gallery in New York.


Allen began as a painter living in Amsterdam where she had her first one-person gallery exhibition in 1967. After several one-person shows in New York, she joined [[John Weber Gallery]] in 1973 and had one-person exhibitions there in 1974, 75, 77, 79.<ref name="heller">Jules Heller, Nancy G. Heller (eds), [https://books.google.com/books?id=ReZkAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1771&lpg=PA1771&dq=john+weber+gallery+Roberta+Allen&source=bl&ots=UdY_KY0UTr&sig=wwIV8pmkSfxpSD3adWwa4yHCtJg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiExbnr-avTAhVqx1QKHUb_AEcQ6AEITzAI "Roberta Allen"], ''North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary'' (Garland Publishing, Incorporated, 1997)</ref> During this time, she also had one-person gallery exhibitions in Milan, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Munich and Rome. She had one-person museum exhibitions at [[MoMA]] P.S. 1, L.I.C., NY, 1977, 80; the Kunstforum, Städtische Galerie in [[Lenbachhaus]], Munich, 1981,<ref name="munchen">[http://viaf.org/viaf/129728232/], a Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München</ref> and [[The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts]], Perth, Western Australia, 1989. Her conceptual works, which combine image and text, include drawings, collages, artist books,<ref name="possibilities">[http://www.schuelke-finebooks.com/buch/1686/possibilities/], Parasol Press Ltd. 1977</ref> photo/text series and installations. She has been in over one hundred group exhibitions worldwide. After 1981, while continuing to make conceptual art and exhibiting intermittently, she preferred to stay outside the art world. In 2014, the [[Athenaeum Music & Arts Library]] in La Jolla, CA began a catalogue raisonne of her multiple edition 1970s artist books and a one-person exhibition of her 1970s art took place at [[Minus Space]]<ref name="minus space">[http://www.minusspace.com/2014/04/roberta-allen-works-from-the-1970s/] Minus Space</ref> in Dumbo, Brooklyn. A one-person show of recent conceptual drawings and one-of-a-kind artist books took place at the Athenaeum in 2016.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hyperallergic.com/337518/clusters-of-loose-geometries-in-conceptual-thought-drawings/ |publisher=hyperallergic |title=Clusters of Loose Geometries in Conceptual "Thought Drawings" |author=John Seed |date=November 11, 2016}}</ref>
Allen began as a painter in Amsterdam, where she had her first one-person gallery exhibition in 1967. After several one-person shows in New York, she joined John Weber Gallery in 1973 and had one-person exhibitions there in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1979.<ref name="heller">{{cite book|editor-first1=Jules |editor-last1=Heller|editor-first2=Nancy G. |editor-last2=Heller|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ReZkAgAAQBAJ&dq=john+weber+gallery+Roberta+Allen&pg=PA1771 |chapter=Roberta Allen|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=Garland Publishing, Incorporated|date=1997}}</ref> She also had one-person gallery exhibitions in the 1970s in Milan, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Munich and Rome, and one-person museum exhibitions at [[MoMA PS1]], L.I.C., NY, in 1977, 80; the Kunstforum, Städtische Galerie in [[Lenbachhaus]], Munich, in 1981,<ref name="munchen">{{cite web|url=http://viaf.org/viaf/129728232/|title=Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus |location=München}}</ref> and the [[Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts]], Perth, Western Australia, in 1989.


After 1981 she preferred to stay outside the art world, while continuing to make conceptual art and occasionally exhibiting. In 2014, the [[Athenaeum Music & Arts Library]] in [[La Jolla]], California, began a [[catalogue raisonné]] of her 1970s artist books. A one-person exhibition of her 1970s art was presented at [[Minus Space]]<ref name="minus space">{{cite web|url=http://www.minusspace.com/2014/04/roberta-allen-works-from-the-1970s/|title=Roberta Allen: Works from the 1970s|location=Minus Space|date=April 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627171644/https://www.minusspace.com/2014/04/roberta-allen-works-from-the-1970s/|archive-date=27 June 2015}}</ref> in [[Dumbo, Brooklyn]], and a one-person show of recent conceptual drawings and one-of-a-kind artist books at the Athenaeum in 2016. A one-person exhibition, ''"Some Facts About Fear,"'' was presented in 2017 in Minus Space in Brooklyn.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hyperallergic.com/337518/clusters-of-loose-geometries-in-conceptual-thought-drawings/ |publisher=hyperallergic |title=Clusters of Loose Geometries in Conceptual "Thought Drawings" |author=John Seed |date=November 11, 2016}}</ref>
⚫
==Selected one person exhibitions==


⚫
==Writing career==

[[List of Experimental Women Writers|Allen]] has published, among other books, three micro and short story collections, a novel, a novella and a travel memoir. In her writing, she questions the way in which we perceive the world and the self, and she considers the way our minds work and the act of relating. Her interest in language is the bridge that connects these separate artistic pursuits

⚫
She began writing fiction in 1979 while making conceptual art. Her first stories were published in 1980 by Sun & Moon Press<ref name="Sun and Moon">{{cite web|publisher=Sun & Moon Press Archive |url=http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/ucsd/spcoll/mss0224.pdf|title=Folder 14 Allen, Roberta Box 2}}</ref> in the anthology ''Contemporary American Fiction,'' along with [[John Ashbery]] and [[Walter Abish]], among others. Her first story collection was ''The Traveling Woman'', (Vehicle Editions).<ref>{{cite news|last=Shaw|first= Janet|title=Quicksilver Nightmares|work=[[The New York Times Book Review]]|date=June 8, 1986|page=36|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/08/books/in-short-fiction-quicksilver-nightmares.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QU0.gtXv.5K_zt3TxsX-h&smid=url-share}}</ref> Her other books are ''The Daughter'', (Autonomedia),<ref name="Daughter">{{cite book|author-mask= 1|first=Roberta |last=Allen|url=http://www.spdbooks.org/Products/0936756861/the-daughter.aspx|title=The Daughter|publisher=Autonomedia|date= Jun 1, 1992}}</ref> ''Certain People'', ([[Coffee House Press]]);<ref>{{cite news|last=Winters|first=Laura|title=Certain People & Other Stories|work=[[The New York Times Book Review]]|date=March 23, 1997|page=18|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/23/books/books-in-brief-fiction-096679.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QU0.Uq6p.z0fK2ROKJId0&smid=url-share}}</ref> ''Amazon Dream'' ([[City Lights]])<ref name="Amazon Dream">{{cite book|author-mask= 1|first=Roberta |last=Allen|url=https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Dream-Roberta-Allen/dp/0872862704|title=Amazon Dream|publisher=City Lights Publishers|date=October 1992}}</ref> ''Fast Fiction'', (Story Press),<ref name="Fast Fiction">{{cite book|author-mask= 1|first=Roberta |last=Allen|url=https://www.amazon.com/Fast-Fiction-Creating-Five-Minutes/dp/1884910270|title=Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes|publisher=Story Pr|edition=1st|date=June 1997}}</ref> ''The Playful Way to Serious Writing'',<ref name="The Playful Way to Serious Writing">{{cite book|author-mask= 1|first=Roberta |last=Allen|url=https://www.amazon.com/Playful-Way-Serious-Writing/dp/061819729X|title=The Playful Way to Serious Writing|publisher=Mariner Books|edition=1st|date=September 9, 2002}}</ref> ''The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself'',<ref name="The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself">{{cite book|author-mask= 1|first=Roberta |last=Allen|url=https://www.amazon.com/Playful-Way-Knowing-Yourself-Self/dp/061826924X|title=The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself: A Creative Workbook to Inspire Self-Discovery|publisher=Mariner Books |date=April 29, 2003}}</ref> (both [[Houghton Mifflin]]) and ''The Dreaming Girl'' (Painted Leaf, new edition Ellipsis Press).<ref name="The Dreaming Girl">{{cite book|author-mask= 1|first=Roberta |last=Allen|url=http://www.ellipsispress.com/2011/07/20/the-dreaming-girl-by-roberta-allen/|title=The Dreaming Girl|publisher=Ellipsis Press|date=2011}}</ref> Her latest story collection is ''The Princess of Herself'', published by Pelekinesis Press in 2017.<ref>{{cite book|author-mask= 1|first=Roberta |last=Allen|url=http://pelekinesis.com/catalog/roberta_allen-the_princess_of_herself.html|title= The Princess of Herself|publisher= Pelekinesis Press|date=2017}}</ref>

Her [[Flash fiction|short shorts]] and short stories have appeared in over 300 literary magazines, including ''[[Conjunctions (journal)|Conjunctions]]'', ''[[Guernica (magazine)|Guernica]]'', ''[[Bomb (magazine)|Bomb]]'', ''[[The Brooklyn Rail]]'', ''[[Open City (magazine)|Open City]]'', ''[[The Collagist]]'', ''[[Gargoyle (magazine)|Gargoyle]]'' and in many anthologies, including ''Micro Fiction (magazine)|Micro Fiction'', published by [[W.W. Norton]] in 2017.

She received the 2015 Honorable Mention for The [[Gertrude Stein]] Award for Fiction. She has been a Tennessee Williams Fellow in Fiction at the [[Sewanee: The University of the South|University of the South]] and a [[Yaddo|Yaddo Fellow]].

⚫
==Selected one person exhibitions==
* 2017 Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
* 2016 Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA.
* 2016 Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA.
* 2014 Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
* 2014 Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
* 1989 Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Western Australia
* 1989 Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Western Australia
* 1981 Galerie Walter Storms, Munich, Germany
* 1981 Galerie Walter Storms, Munich, Germany
* Kunstforum, Stadt. Galerie im Lembachhaus, Munich, Germany
* 1981 Kunstforum, Stadt. Galerie im Lembachhaus, Munich, Germany
* Galleria Primo Piano, Rome, Italy
* 1981 Galleria Primo Piano, Rome, Italy
* 1980 P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
* 1980 P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
* 1979 John Weber Gallery, NYC
* 1979 John Weber Gallery, NYC
* 1978 Hal Bromm Gallery, NYC
* 1978 Hal Bromm Gallery, NYC
* MTL Galerie, Brussels, Belgium
* 1978 MTL Galerie, Brussels, Belgium
* Fine Arts Center, C.W. Post College, Glenvale, LI., NY
* 1978 Fine Arts Center, C.W. Post College, Glenvale, LI., NY
* 1977 Galerie Maier-Hahn, Dusseldorf, Germany
* 1977 Galerie Maier-Hahn, Dusseldorf, Germany
* John Weber Gallery, NYC
* 1977 John Weber Gallery, NYC
* Franklin Furnace, NYC
* 1977 Franklin Furnace, NYC
* P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
* 1977 P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
* 1975 John Weber Gallery, NYC
* 1975 John Weber Gallery, NYC
* 1974 John Weber Gallery, NYC
* 1974 John Weber Gallery, NYC
* Galleria Toselli, Milan, Italy
* 1974 Galleria Toselli, Milan, Italy
* 1967 Galerie 845, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* 1967 Galerie 845, Amsterdam, Netherlands


==Grants and fellowships==
==Grants and fellowships==
* 2017-18 Long-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize for The Princess of Herself

* 2017 Tree of Life Artist Grant
* 2010 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
* 2005 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
* 1998 Tennessee Williams Fellow In Creative Writing/Writer In Residence, University of the South, Sewanee, TN
* 1994 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
* 1993 Yaddo Residency Fellowship, Saratoga Springs, New York
* 1989 Artist-In-Residence Fellowship, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
* 1989 Artist-In-Residence Fellowship, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
* 1987 Yaddo Residency Fellowship, Saratoga Springs, New York
* 1986 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
* 1985 VCCA Residency Feliowship
* 1985 VCCA Residency Feliowship
* 1985 LINE (NEA & NYS Council) Grant
* 1985 LINE (NEA & NYS Council) Grant
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* ''Some Facts About Fear'', published by the artist, Rome, 1981, limited edition
* ''Some Facts About Fear'', published by the artist, Rome, 1981, limited edition
* ''Everything in the world there is to know is known by somebody, but not by the same knower'', Ottenhausen Verlag, Munich, 1981, edition of 300
* ''Everything in the world there is to know is known by somebody, but not by the same knower'', Ottenhausen Verlag, Munich, 1981, edition of 300
* ''Possibilities'', John Weber Gallery & Parasol Press, 1977, edition of 1000
* ''Possibilities'', John Weber Gallery & [[Parasol Press]], 1977, edition of 1000
* ''Pointless Acts'', Collation Center, NY 1977, edition of 1000
* ''Pointless Acts'', Collation Center, NY 1977, edition of 1000
* ''Pointless Arrows'', published by the artist, 197G, edition of 1000
* ''Pointless Arrows'', published by the artist, 197G, edition of 1000
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==Selected bibliography==
==Selected bibliography==


* Silverblatt, Michael, "Roberta Allen: The Princess of Herself," Bookworm, KCRW Los Angeles, CA, March 22, 2018, live and online.
* Torri, Erika, ''Roberta Allen,'' Artists' Books Collection, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA., May 2017, 64 pages.
* Torri, Erika, ''Roberta Allen,'' Artists' Books Collection, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA., May 2017, 64 pages.
* Zinnser, John, "Writing Anti-Stories: An Interview with Roberta Allen," Bomb Magazine, (Online), Oct. 11, 2017
* Seed, John, ''Clusters of Loose Geometries in Conceptual "Thought Drawings,"'' Roberta Allen (Review), Hyperallergic, Nov. 10, 2016 online.
* Seed, John, ''Clusters of Loose Geometries in Conceptual "Thought Drawings,"'' Roberta Allen (Review), Hyperallergic, Nov. 10, 2016 online.
* Catalog of exhibition, ''Un Museo Ideale: The Collection of Bianca & Mario Bertolini'', Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy, 2015.
* Catalog of exhibition, ''Un Museo Ideale: The Collection of Bianca & Mario Bertolini'', Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy, 2015.
* Goodrich, Melissa, (Online Interview) "The Hair Stylist Who Fell Twenty Feet And Landed Upright: An Interview with Roberta Allen," The Collagist Blog, Dzanc Books, Jan. 22, 2014
* Vartanian, Hrag, ''Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Brooklyn Art Shows: #2 Roberta Allen: Works from the 1970s at Minus Space'', Hyperallergic, Dec. 23, 2014, online.
* Vartanian, Hrag, ''Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Brooklyn Art Shows: #2 Roberta Allen: Works from the 1970s at Minus Space'', Hyperallergic, Dec. 23, 2014, online.
* McConnell, Suzanne, “The Dreaming Girl,” Web Exclusive, The Brooklyn Rail, Feb. 2012
* Wynn Kramarshy / Amy Eshoo, Editor, ''560 BROADWAy: A New York Drawing Collection at Work, 1991-2006'', Fifth Floor Foundation with Yale University Press, 2008, pp 161, 177.
* Wynn Kramarshy / Amy Eshoo, Editor, ''560 BROADWAy: A New York Drawing Collection at Work, 1991-2006'', Fifth Floor Foundation with Yale University Press, 2008, pp 161, 177.
* Indiana, Gary, “Have Pain Will Travel.” The Village Voice, Books, December 23, 1986, 72.
⚫
* ''Erweiteerte Fotografie/Extended Photography'', catalog of exhibition at Wiener Seccession, Vienna, Austria, 1981
* “Metaphor in Midocean.” “Noted With Pleasure,” (Excerpt) The New York Times Book Review, June 22, 1986, 39.
⚫
* ''Erweiteerte Fotografie/Extended Photography'', catalog of exhibition at Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria, 1981
* Rein, Ingrid, ''Paradoxa mit Pfeil und Fisch, Die Installationen von Roberta Allen'', Suddeutsche Zeitung, April 27, 1981
* Rein, Ingrid, ''Paradoxa mit Pfeil und Fisch, Die Installationen von Roberta Allen'', Suddeutsche Zeitung, April 27, 1981
* Skira Annuel, ''Art Actuel'', 1979, Geneva, Statement by the artist, p 32
* Skira Annuel, ''Art Actuel'', 1979, Geneva, Statement by the artist, p 32
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==Selected public collections==
==Selected public collections==
* Museum of Modern Art, NYC
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
* The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NYC
* The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NYC
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* Athenaeum, Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA
* Athenaeum, Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA
* Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy
* Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy

⚫
==Writing career==

⚫
[[List of Experimental Women Writers|Allen]] began writing fiction in 1979 while making conceptual art. Her first stories were published in 1980 by Sun & Moon Press<ref name="Sun and Moon">Sun & Moon Press Archive [pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/ucsd/spcoll/mss0224.pdf], Folder 14 Allen, Roberta Box 2</ref> in the anthology ''Contemporary American Fiction'' (along with [[John Ashbery]] and [[Walter Abish]], among others). Her first story collection was ''The Traveling Woman'', (Vehicle Editions).<ref name="Traveling Women">[http://www.vehicleeditions.com/Site/Traveling_Women.html] ''Traveling Women'' (Vehicle Editions; First edition, March 1986)</ref> Her other books are ''The Daughter'', (Autonomedia),<ref name="Daughter">[http://www.spdbooks.org/Products/0936756861/the-daughter.aspx] ''The Daughter'' (Autonomedia, 6/1/1992)</ref> ''Certain People'', ([[Coffee House Press]]);<ref name="Certain People">[http://coffeehousepress.org/shop/certain-people-2/] ''Certain People'' (Coffee House Press, February 1997)</ref> ''Amazon Dream'' ([[City Lights]])<ref name="Amazon Dream">[https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Dream-Roberta-Allen/dp/0872862704] ''Amazon Dream'' City Lights Publishers (October 1992)</ref> ''Fast Fiction'', (Story Press),<ref name="Fast Fiction">[https://www.amazon.com/Fast-Fiction-Creating-Five-Minutes/dp/1884910270] ''Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes'' Story Pr; 1st edition (June 1997)</ref> ''The Playful Way to Serious Writing'',<ref name="The Playful Way to Serious Writing">[https://www.amazon.com/Playful-Way-Serious-Writing/dp/061819729X] ''The Playful Way to Serious Writing'' Mariner Books; 1 edition (September 9, 2002)</ref> ''The Playful to Knowing Yourself'',<ref name="The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself">[https://www.amazon.com/Playful-Way-Knowing-Yourself-Self/dp/061826924X] ''The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself: A Creative Workbook to Inspire Self-Discovery'' Mariner Books (April 29, 2003)</ref> (both [[Houghton Mifflin]]) and ''The Dreaming Girl'' ([[Painted Leaf]], new edition Ellipsis Press).<ref name="The Dreaming Girl">[http://www.ellipsispress.com/2011/07/20/the-dreaming-girl-by-roberta-allen/] ''The Dreaming Girl'' Ellipsis Press, 2011</ref> Her latest story collection, ''The Princess of Herself'', will be published by [[Pelekinesis]]<ref name="The Princess of Herself">[http://pelekinesis.com/catalog/roberta_allen-the_princess_of_herself.html] ''The Princess of Herself'' Pelekinesis, 2017</ref> in September. Her [[Flash fiction|short shorts]] and short stories have appeared in over 300 literary magazines, including [[Conjunctions]], [[Guernica (magazine)|Guernica]], [[Bomb (magazine)|Bomb]], [[The Brooklyn Rail]], [[Open City (magazine)|Open City]], [[The Collagist]], [[Gargoyle (magazine)|Gargoyle]] and in many anthologies, including [[Micro Fiction (magazine)|Micro Fiction]], to be published by [[W.W. Norton]] in 2017. She received the 2015 Honorable Mention for [[The Gertrude Stein Award]] for Fiction. She has been a [[Tennessee Williams Fellow]] in Fiction at the University of the South and a Yaddo Fellow.

==Bibliography==

* ''The Traveling Woman'' (stories)
* ''The Daughter'' (novella-in-shorts)
* ''Certain People'' (stories)
* ''Amazon Dream'' (memoir)
* ''Fast Fiction'' (writing guide)
* ''The Playful Way to Serious Writing'' (writing workbook)
* ''The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself'' (writing workbook)
* ''The Dreaming Girl'' (novel)
* ''The Princess of Herself'' (stories)


==Teaching (writing)==
==Teaching (writing)==
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[[Category:American memoirists]]
[[Category:American memoirists]]
[[Category:American women memoirists]]
[[Category:American women memoirists]]
[[Category:21st-century American women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American women artists]]

Latest revision as of 11:15, 17 February 2024

Roberta Allen
Born1945
New York, NY
Occupation
  • Conceptual artist
  • Fiction writer
NationalityAmerican
Period1960s–present
Website
www.robertaallen.com

Roberta Allen is a conceptual artist and fiction writer who explores ways in which language changes or informs perception of images. She is known for her multi-media conceptual works. She has appeared in over one hundred group exhibitions worldwide.

Early life and travels[edit]

Allen was born and raised in New York NY. At the age of twenty, she traveled alone to Europe and lived briefly in Athens, Amsterdam and Berlin, and later in Mexico. Over the years, she has traveled, often alone, to the Peruvian Amazon, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Mali,[1] and countries in Central America. Her travels have inspired many of her stories.

Art career[edit]

Allen is known for her conceptual works, which combine image and text, and include drawings, collages, artist books,[2] photo/text series, sculpture and installations. Her works in the early 1970s were inspired by Kierkegaard’s belief that our deepest experiences occur in the form of contradictions, and that wherever there is contradiction, humor is present. Through the 1970s, she exhibited alongside Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman and Carl Andre, among others, at John Weber Gallery in New York.

Allen began as a painter in Amsterdam, where she had her first one-person gallery exhibition in 1967. After several one-person shows in New York, she joined John Weber Gallery in 1973 and had one-person exhibitions there in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1979.[3] She also had one-person gallery exhibitions in the 1970s in Milan, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Munich and Rome, and one-person museum exhibitions at MoMA PS1, L.I.C., NY, in 1977, 80; the Kunstforum, Städtische Galerie in Lenbachhaus, Munich, in 1981,[4] and the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Western Australia, in 1989.

After 1981 she preferred to stay outside the art world, while continuing to make conceptual art and occasionally exhibiting. In 2014, the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library in La Jolla, California, began a catalogue raisonné of her 1970s artist books. A one-person exhibition of her 1970s art was presented at Minus Space[5] in Dumbo, Brooklyn, and a one-person show of recent conceptual drawings and one-of-a-kind artist books at the Athenaeum in 2016. A one-person exhibition, "Some Facts About Fear," was presented in 2017 in Minus Space in Brooklyn.[6]

Writing career[edit]

Allen has published, among other books, three micro and short story collections, a novel, a novella and a travel memoir. In her writing, she questions the way in which we perceive the world and the self, and she considers the way our minds work and the act of relating. Her interest in language is the bridge that connects these separate artistic pursuits

She began writing fiction in 1979 while making conceptual art. Her first stories were published in 1980 by Sun & Moon Press[7] in the anthology Contemporary American Fiction, along with John Ashbery and Walter Abish, among others. Her first story collection was The Traveling Woman, (Vehicle Editions).[8] Her other books are The Daughter, (Autonomedia),[9] Certain People, (Coffee House Press);[10] Amazon Dream (City Lights)[11] Fast Fiction, (Story Press),[12] The Playful Way to Serious Writing,[13] The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself,[14] (both Houghton Mifflin) and The Dreaming Girl (Painted Leaf, new edition Ellipsis Press).[15] Her latest story collection is The Princess of Herself, published by Pelekinesis Press in 2017.[16]

Her short shorts and short stories have appeared in over 300 literary magazines, including Conjunctions, Guernica, Bomb, The Brooklyn Rail, Open City, The Collagist, Gargoyle and in many anthologies, including Micro Fiction (magazine)|Micro Fiction, published by W.W. Norton in 2017.

She received the 2015 Honorable Mention for The Gertrude Stein Award for Fiction. She has been a Tennessee Williams Fellow in Fiction at the University of the South and a Yaddo Fellow.

Selected one person exhibitions[edit]

  • 2017 Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
  • 2016 Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA.
  • 2014 Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
  • 1989 Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Western Australia
  • 1981 Galerie Walter Storms, Munich, Germany
  • 1981 Kunstforum, Stadt. Galerie im Lembachhaus, Munich, Germany
  • 1981 Galleria Primo Piano, Rome, Italy
  • 1980 P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
  • 1979 John Weber Gallery, NYC
  • 1978 Hal Bromm Gallery, NYC
  • 1978 MTL Galerie, Brussels, Belgium
  • 1978 Fine Arts Center, C.W. Post College, Glenvale, LI., NY
  • 1977 Galerie Maier-Hahn, Dusseldorf, Germany
  • 1977 John Weber Gallery, NYC
  • 1977 Franklin Furnace, NYC
  • 1977 P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
  • 1975 John Weber Gallery, NYC
  • 1974 John Weber Gallery, NYC
  • 1974 Galleria Toselli, Milan, Italy
  • 1967 Galerie 845, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Grants and fellowships[edit]

  • 2017-18 Long-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize for The Princess of Herself
  • 2017 Tree of Life Artist Grant
  • 2010 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
  • 2005 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
  • 1998 Tennessee Williams Fellow In Creative Writing/Writer In Residence, University of the South, Sewanee, TN
  • 1994 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
  • 1993 Yaddo Residency Fellowship, Saratoga Springs, New York
  • 1989 Artist-In-Residence Fellowship, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
  • 1987 Yaddo Residency Fellowship, Saratoga Springs, New York
  • 1986 Virginia Center For The Creative Arts, Residency Fellowship, Amherst, VA
  • 1985 VCCA Residency Feliowship
  • 1985 LINE (NEA & NYS Council) Grant
  • 1983 Yaddo Residency Fellowship
  • 1978-79 CAPS (Creative Artists Public Service) Grant (Sculpture)
  • 1972 Ossabaw Island Project Residency Fellowship
  • 1971-72 MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship

Multiple edition artist books[edit]

  • Some Facts About Fear, published by the artist, Rome, 1981, limited edition
  • Everything in the world there is to know is known by somebody, but not by the same knower, Ottenhausen Verlag, Munich, 1981, edition of 300
  • Possibilities, John Weber Gallery & Parasol Press, 1977, edition of 1000
  • Pointless Acts, Collation Center, NY 1977, edition of 1000
  • Pointless Arrows, published by the artist, 197G, edition of 1000
  • Partially Trapped Lines, Parasol Press, SA, 1975, limited edition of 200
  • The Invisible Line of Limitation, Parasol Press, SA, 1975, limited edition of 200

Selected bibliography[edit]

  • Silverblatt, Michael, "Roberta Allen: The Princess of Herself," Bookworm, KCRW Los Angeles, CA, March 22, 2018, live and online.
  • Torri, Erika, Roberta Allen, Artists' Books Collection, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA., May 2017, 64 pages.
  • Zinnser, John, "Writing Anti-Stories: An Interview with Roberta Allen," Bomb Magazine, (Online), Oct. 11, 2017
  • Seed, John, Clusters of Loose Geometries in Conceptual "Thought Drawings," Roberta Allen (Review), Hyperallergic, Nov. 10, 2016 online.
  • Catalog of exhibition, Un Museo Ideale: The Collection of Bianca & Mario Bertolini, Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy, 2015.
  • Goodrich, Melissa, (Online Interview) "The Hair Stylist Who Fell Twenty Feet And Landed Upright: An Interview with Roberta Allen," The Collagist Blog, Dzanc Books, Jan. 22, 2014
  • Vartanian, Hrag, Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Brooklyn Art Shows: #2 Roberta Allen: Works from the 1970s at Minus Space, Hyperallergic, Dec. 23, 2014, online.
  • McConnell, Suzanne, “The Dreaming Girl,” Web Exclusive, The Brooklyn Rail, Feb. 2012
  • Wynn Kramarshy / Amy Eshoo, Editor, 560 BROADWAy: A New York Drawing Collection at Work, 1991-2006, Fifth Floor Foundation with Yale University Press, 2008, pp 161, 177.
  • Indiana, Gary, “Have Pain Will Travel.” The Village Voice, Books, December 23, 1986, 72.
  • “Metaphor in Midocean.” “Noted With Pleasure,” (Excerpt) The New York Times Book Review, June 22, 1986, 39.
  • Erweiteerte Fotografie/Extended Photography, catalog of exhibition at Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria, 1981
  • Rein, Ingrid, Paradoxa mit Pfeil und Fisch, Die Installationen von Roberta Allen, Suddeutsche Zeitung, April 27, 1981
  • Skira Annuel, Art Actuel, 1979, Geneva, Statement by the artist, p 32
  • O'Grady, Holly, The Paradoxical Arrow: Roberta Allen's Installations And Books, (article), Arts Magazine, February 1979, pp 156,157
  • Lopes Cardozo, Judith, Roberta Allen (review) Artforum, February 1978, pp 73, 74
  • Lubell, Ellen, Roberta Allen (review) Arts Magazine, October 1977, pp 23,24
  • Deitch, Jeffrey, Roberta Allen, (article), Arts Magazine, June 1977, p 6
  • Auping, Michael, New Work/New York catalog of exhibition at California State University, Los Angeles, 1976.
  • Lubell, Ellen, Alighiero E. Boetti/Roberta Allen (review), Arts Magazine, April 1975, pp 19, 20
  • Gilbert-Rolfe, Jeremy, Roberta Allen (review), Artforum, May 1974, p 69

Selected public collections[edit]

  • Museum of Modern Art, NYC
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
  • The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, NYC
  • Bibliotheque du France, Paris, France
  • Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
  • Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
  • Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
  • Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT.
  • Athenaeum, Music & Arts Library, La Jolla, CA
  • Museo del Novecento, Milan, Italy

Teaching (writing)[edit]

Teaching positions include: The Writing Program, New School University from 1992 – 2010, Columbia University's School of the Arts, University of the South, Sewanee, TN, Parsons School of Design, NY, Summer Writers' Conference, Hofstra University, International Women's Writing Guild Conference, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. Allen's private writing workshops began in 1991 and continue to the present.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Allen, Roberta (September 17, 1995). "Mali Adventure, From Timbuktu to Dogon Country". New York Times Style Magazine. p. 24.
  2. ^ — (1977). Possibilities. Parasol Press Ltd.
  3. ^ Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G., eds. (1997). "Roberta Allen". North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Garland Publishing, Incorporated.
  4. ^ "Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus". München.
  5. ^ "Roberta Allen: Works from the 1970s". Minus Space. April 4, 2014. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015.
  6. ^ John Seed (November 11, 2016). "Clusters of Loose Geometries in Conceptual "Thought Drawings"". hyperallergic.
  7. ^ "Folder 14 Allen, Roberta Box 2" (PDF). Sun & Moon Press Archive.
  8. ^ Shaw, Janet (June 8, 1986). "Quicksilver Nightmares". The New York Times Book Review. p. 36.
  9. ^ — (Jun 1, 1992). The Daughter. Autonomedia.
  10. ^ Winters, Laura (March 23, 1997). "Certain People & Other Stories". The New York Times Book Review. p. 18.
  11. ^ — (October 1992). Amazon Dream. City Lights Publishers.
  12. ^ — (June 1997). Fast Fiction: Creating Fiction in Five Minutes (1st ed.). Story Pr.
  13. ^ — (September 9, 2002). The Playful Way to Serious Writing (1st ed.). Mariner Books.
  14. ^ — (April 29, 2003). The Playful Way to Knowing Yourself: A Creative Workbook to Inspire Self-Discovery. Mariner Books.
  15. ^ — (2011). The Dreaming Girl. Ellipsis Press.
  16. ^ — (2017). The Princess of Herself. Pelekinesis Press.
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