Allen’s work sits at the intersection between the handmade, biomorphic sculpture of artists like J.B. Blunk, and the dematerialized, digital space of 3D modelling. He often favours materials with a rich and irregular patterning, like Persian travertine marble or claro walnut, whose interior he exposes through the carving process.

In 2017, Allen moved from California to Tepoztlán, south of Mexico City, where he set up a bronze foundry. In many of his recent works, variations of patina and tone push the medium to new limits. Allen has spoken of the liveliness he sees in his sculptures, which often seem to be “going away, or leaving, or interacting with something invisible,” as he says. The hardness of stone, or bronze, or wood becomes soft and pliable through Allen’s interaction with it – a synthesis of his surreal imagination and the imagination of digital technology