artist statement

I had an ah-ha moment early in my life. My dad bought a book for me that opened my mind to great art being created.I think it was titled Ten American Artists That Are Making a Difference. Something like that. The point was, here was my dad, an artist himself, giving me a book on artists other than his own artist friends, and very good artists at that. He inscribed inside the book: "study these artists who are making a difference in the art world, and not the local-yokals."(living in Houston) In that book was Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Willem deKooning, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, Joseph Cornell, and a few more. I studied those guys. (I eventually met three of them) I was hooked. I wanted to create great work like them. Each one of them was pushing their own limits to reach a new place in art. That is what I am interested in as well. I am interested in being an artist of my own time and expressing that narrative in my own way.

- Mark Andrew Allen

biography

born Houston, TX

MARK ANDREW ALLEN is an internationally represented mid-career artist based in Los Angeles. Allen's work has gained recognition world-wide for it's complex layering of mixed media works that create a narrative of modern American culture. His work today is a culmination of many years of painting, thinking and experiencing. He blends urban street art with his background of typography, mixed media collage, and abstract expressionism into each of his urban pop expressionist works.

The son of fine artist / commercial artist Harrison Allen, Mark learned a lot very early from his talented father. His think training also includes a bachelor degree in commercial art from Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. He continued study at Parson's School of Design in New York City where he had an apartment across the street from Andy Warhol's factory (they met in 1982.) He continued study later at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.

Allen is represented in galleries throughout the world including in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Rome, Athens, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Boston, Santa Barbara, San Diego, New Orleans, Greenwich, Montreal Canada, and Baja Mexico. Museums he has shown in include The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum - Cleveland, OH; Experience Music Project - Seattle, WA; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art, and Acadian Museum - Lafayette, LA. The curators of London's Saatchi online gallery have included his work in three juried shows. His work has been exhibited at New York's Rockefeller Center storefront windows twice.

He was a major figure in the graphic design community for over two decades. Much of his celebrated work is from the entertainment industry doing graphic design work for high profile clients including the 'Yu-Gi-Oh' logo, 'The Wizard of Oz' 60th Anniversary logo, redesigned Coca-Cola bottles, designed 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' logo for Disney and art directed for recording artist Sean 'P Diddy' Combs record label, Bad Boy Records. Promotion work for Pepsi, Diet Coke, Miller Beer, Bud Light, Mattel, Capitol Records, Atlantic Records, Interscope, Geffen, EMI, and RCA.Product development for licensing of "The Simpson's", "Family Guy", "M*A*S*H", "Lion King", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer." Allen served as Vice President of Development for the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) for two years.