TERRY ALLEN

(AMERICAN, BORN 1943)

Laumeier U-ME-UM, 1998
neon light in Plexiglass case
36 x 120 x 14 inches
Laumeier Sculpture Park Commission, with funds from Emerson

Inspired by his family, music and his love of the open road, artist and songwriter Terry Allen uses sculpture as a window into the human condition, and a search for the truth of human experience. Allen’s interest in the combination of language and light, and the fusion of nature and artifact, is both dark and playful. As the letters pulse in red, green and blue, alternating in a poetry of motion and implied sound. Placed in contrast to the domestic architecture of the Estate House—now the Kranzberg Education Lab—the text surges with power and exuberance.

Sculpture Interaction Guideline: Look, But Do Not Touch

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Terry Allen was born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1943. He earned his B.F.A. from Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. Allen works in a wide variety of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, video, musical and theatrical performances, and multi-media installation. He has received several awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1986 and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1970, 1978 and 1985. Allen's works are represented in collections including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Dallas Museum of Art; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Visit www.terryallenartmusic.com for more information.