ARTIST'S BIO
Brejenn Allen is an East Mississippi-based mixed-media painter and multi-disciplinary designer. She utilizes bold colors, patterns, and thick impasto textures to display African American culture and people in a warm, inviting light. Her work's patterns, repetition, and textures are influenced by fabrics that surrounded her during her childhood in her mother's sewing shop. Brejenn’s award-winning work has been featured in publications like Syzygy Magazine, Distant Memories Zine, and the Meridian Star. Allen’s notable exhibitions include the Siragusa Gallery in Chicago, the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Holy Art Gallery in Athens, Greece. Locally, she has shown work at the DeKalb Regional Railroad Museum, Meridian Threefoot Festival, and the Little Yellow Building. Allen holds an Associate of Arts Degree (2018) from East Mississippi Community College and a BFA (2020) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Everything symbolizes something higher than ourselves. My work captures the meaning and emotion of African American people, mundane tasks, and random objects. It frequently remixes historical masterpieces in art history with modern black people. I use joint compound and acrylic to paint my subject matter with thick, impasto acrylic, then incorporate found objects, jewelry, collage, gold leaf, and clay. This results in busy, heavily textured, mixed-media paintings with dips and peaks. The physical texture and details viewers see up close signify the emotional highs and lows of the subject matter that we may overlook as a part of the bigger picture. Recently, rest has been a recurring theme in my work. Rest is a liberating contradiction to the forced labor of my ancestors. I see a throughline in the mandated work of my ancestors and my mother's long, grueling hours as a seamstress. Her work and trade enveloped my childhood with a myriad of fabric patterns, inspiring me to paint Sub-Saharan African designs in the rear of my pieces. Other consistencies in my work include intimate close-ups of the body.