A b o u t

From 1973-81, Roberta Allen showed alongside Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Carl Andre and others at John Weber Gallery in New York. Her conceptual art, combining text and image, has included drawings, collages, artist books, photo/text works, installations, digital prints and sculpture. 30 one-person and over 100 group exhibitions have taken place in galleries and museums internationally. She has work in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum and MoMA among other public and private collections. Most of her drawings, prints, photographs and collages have been acquired by The Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

In her work, which combines text and image, language does not simply describe what we see, but actively shapes it, exposing how perception, judgment and memory are biased and unstable. She creates an interplay between physical and conceptual inform-iation, nudging viewers towards introspection and self-awareness.

A Tennessee Williams Fellow in Fiction, a Yaddo Fellow, and VCCA Fellow, Roberta is a writer of micro, very short/flash and short stories--over 300 published in magazines and anthologies. Among her nine published books are four story collections, a novel and a memoir, including her latest collection, The Princess of Herself. Her writing papers have been acquired by The Fales Archive at NYU. Her books have been reviewed in The New York Times Book Review.

Roberta lived briefly in Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, and Mexico. Her travels, often alone, include Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Central America, and Mali for The New York Times Magazine. Her trip alone in the Peruvian Amazon inspired her memoir.

She taught creative writing at The New School for many years and has taught at Columbia University, NYU and other schools. Since 1991, she has taught private workshops in-person, one-on-one, and on Zoom.

Roberta Allen: Art and Words are One

"The reemergence of an artist is a wonderful thing, but when that artist is as talented as Roberta Allen, then it is truly a joyous occasion."

--HYPERALLERGIC