Bio
I’m Allison Sommers, a mixed media artist (they/them).
Berlin-based since 2019, I’m a military brat with no particular hometown and a family from the US South. A self-taught artist, I graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in History with a concentration in Early Modern England. I spent my formative years roaming both deteriorating Cold War-era US Air Force Bases and the fossil-rich beaches and cliffs of the Chesapeake Bay, both of which fostered an interest in self-contained habitats both human and natural, a theme that continues to resonate through my work. The naked human body emerges as another kind of confined landscape, joyously and viscerally over-spilling its boundaries whether physical, cultural, or gendered. Both the home-habitat and the body itself become sites of enclosure and revision, safe and fraught in equal measure.
Crucial to my work and practice is a studio economy of remix and recycling, resulting in cumulative works cribbed together from various parts both physical and conceptual: I collect large amounts of trash and cast-offs both personal and free-range, used medical supplies, and cannibalised old work, just as I tailor subjects and compositions together from disparate sources. Bodies themselves are, for me, the most important sites of remix, and queering the form with multiple vantages, organs, and genitals is central to my images. I look at my work as conglomerate artifacts, both of durational time and accumulated detritus, whose meaning is critically dependent on viewer perspective.
I have exhibited across the US and Europe since 2007, including solo shows in Los Angeles, New York, and Portland, Oregon. My work has been published in several anthologies and a drawing monograph is available from Von Zos.
For a subscription-based level of patronage, please consider supporting via Patreon.
Any questions or commission requests, please do not hesitate to email.
ABBREVIATED CV
Solo Shows and Features
“In Pomerium” — Three-person solo — September 2021 with Inliquid Art // SPRING/BREAK Art Fair, New York, NY
“Seed Vault” — Duo with Caitlin McCormack — December 2020 // Talon Gallery, Portland, OR
Solo Feature with Installation — October 2019 // Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
“Standard Issue” – Installation – September 2018 // Governors Island Art Fair, Colonel’s Row, Governors Island, N.Y., NY
Solo Feature — February – March, 2017 // The Convent, Philadelphia, PA
“Last Ditch Effort”– Installation – February – March 2017 // Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
“Under The Harrow” – Three-person solo – May // Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
“Shoe Peg Corn” – Installation – September 2017 // Governors Island Art Fair, Colonel’s Row, Governors Island, N.Y., NY
“What Passing Bells” — Solo — January 23, 2016 // Last Rites Gallery, N.Y., NY
“Bruxism” — Solo with Installation — September, 2016 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
Duo with Jeremy Hush — October 30, 2014 // Antler PDX, Portland, OR
“Coalesce” — Three-person solo – March 1 – April 19, 2013 // Gallery 309, Philadelphia, PA
“Shrouds and Sinew” — Three-person solo –June 2013 // Antler PDX, Portland, OR
“Potter’s Field” — Solo — January 7, 2012 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
“Schlaraffenland” — Solo — May 7, 2010 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
“A Brief History” — Solo — May 2009 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
“Waterways” — “Fresh Faces” Wall Solo) — August 2008 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
“Beasts of Burden” — Solo — June 8, 2007 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
Group Shows
“Folk Horror” May 2023 // Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, AUS
“Don’t Wake Daddy” December 2022 // Feinkunst Krueger, Hamburg, DE
“Danse Macabre” October 2022 // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA
“Arcana” October 2022 // Farbenladen, Dunich, DE
“Ecotopia” June 2022 // St. Thomas-Kirche, Berlin, DE
“Untamed Splendor” January 2022 // Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
“Don’t Wake Daddy” — November 2021 // Feinkunst Krueger, Hamburg, DE
“Pow Wow 10th Anniversary” curated by Thinkspace — March 2021 // Bishop Museum, Honolulu, HI
Thinkspace Booth at SCOPE Miami — December 2020 // Miami, FL
“Small Victories” curated by Thinkspace — September 2020 // Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA
“10th Anniversary” — February 2020 // Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
“Exploring the New Contemporary Movement VII” curated by Thinkspace Projects — January 2020 // Fullerton College Gallery, Fullerton, CA
Thinkspace Booth at SCOPE Miami — December 2019 // Miami, FL
“Don’t Wake Daddy” — November 20, 2019 // Feinkunst Krueger, Hamburg, DE
“Paintguide” – October 21, 2019 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
“The Garden Of Earthly Delights” — April 5, 2019 // Outre Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
“Suggestivism” — February 2 – 27, 2019 // Nucleus Portland, Portland, OR
“Suggestivism” — July 2018 // Spoke Art, NY, NY
“As Above, So Below” — June 1 – 30, 2018 // Arch Enemy Arts, Philadelphia, PA
“Then She Did” — March 3, 2018 // Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, NY
“Don’t Wake Daddy” — December 2, 2017 // Feinkunst Krueger, Hamburg, DE
“Unnatural Histories” — September, 2017 // Antler Gallery, Portland, OR
“Stitched” — June 23, 2017 // Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
“LAX/DTW” — June, 2017 // Thinkspace Gallery in Detroit, MI
“Under The Sea” — May 25, 2017 // Haven Gallery, Long Island, NY
“The Dawn Chorus” — April 14, 2017 // The Convent, Philadelphia, PA
“Friends With The Animals” — April 8, 2017 // Giant Robot Gallery, L.A., CA
“Lover’s Eye” — February 3, 2017 // Modern Eden, San Francisco, CA
“Talon Inaugural” — January 15, 2017 // Talon Gallery, Portland, OR
“Handbills of Subversion” — January 14, 2017 // M.F. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Flesh and Bone” — December 2016 // Beinart Gallery, Australia
“Suggestivism” — August 2016 // Spoke Art, NY, NY
“Don’t Wake Daddy” – December 5, 2015 // Feinkunst Krueger, Hamburg, DE
“Wanderlust” – December 12, 2015 // Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Paintguide” – November 27, 2015 // The Unit London London, EN
“Reverence And Reverie” – November 6, 2014 // The Lodge Gallery, NY, NY
“Exxpectations” –October 29, 2015 // Cornell Museum of Art, Delray, FL
“13th Hour” – October 10, 2015 // Last Rites Gallery, NY, NY
“Tell Them Stories” – October 8, 2015 // Mark Miller Gallery, NY, NY
“Lexicon Infernali” – September 3, 2015 // Stephen Romano Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“LAX/LHR” – September 3, 2015 // Thinkspace Gallery at Stolen Space, London, EN
“Ars Necronomicon” – August 3, 2015 // Providence Art Club, Providence, RI
“Rising” – August 21, 2015 curated by thinkspace gallery // urban nation, Berlin, DE
“One Page” – March 27, 2015 //Roq La Rue Gallery, Seattle, WA
“Memento Mori” – March 13, 2015 // Cotton Candy Machine, Brooklyn, NY
“The Zealot’s Elixir” – February 7, 2015 // Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Prisma Collective Group Show — February 7, 2015 // Spoke Arts, San Francisco, CA
“Pow Wow Hawaii” – January 2015 // Thinkspace Gallery, L.A., CA
For additional CV details, please email.