Artist Statement

I am a narrative, figurative painter. I use oil paint as a vehicle to channel recollections, yearnings, and apprehensions onto canvas. Dreamlike worlds and faded memories are woven together to become chromatic representations of the human condition. I use storytelling to explore themes of memory and nostalgia, as well as social and political systems. Both our recorded histories and our personal memories are flawed relics of a former time. Using pictorial devices such as scale and perspective, I warp image and memory into an interwoven power dynamic between figures, teetering between comforting recollection and psychological distress.  

Cherished memories and deep-seated fears exist side by side in disjointed harmony. I find inspiration in the dusty nooks and crannies of my grandmother's house.  Hidden treasures and lost loves.  Iconography and little dainties. Curios, charms, folderol & frippery. The enigmatic and the absurd.

About Allison Coleman

Allison Coleman is a narrative painter and photographer from the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.  She moved to North Carolina at an early age, splitting her time between the two. She attended the College of Charleston where she received her BA in 2003, and got her MFA from UNC Chapel Hill in 2018.  She has taught numerous classes at UNC and Artspace in Raleigh NC, where she currently has her studio.  She has shown throughout the South East including the CAM Raleigh, The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston SC, and the Ackland Museum in Chapel Hill. Many themes found in her work center around memory, the domestic, Americana and the American South.