Jonathan Allen

Jonathan Allen (born 1966) is a visual artist, writer, and magician based in London. His performance persona "Tommy Angel", is a fictitious evangelist and magician satirising the genre of Gospel Magic, who Allen portrays in a variety of media including performance, photography, video, and writing. Life and work Allen was born in 1966 in the United Kingdom. He received a Fine Art MA from Chelsea College of Art in 1989 and was a Henry Moore Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University from 1991 to 1993. From 2007–8 he was the Arts Council England Helen Chadwick Fellow at the University of Oxford and the British School at Rome. Allen's work has appeared in many exhibitions including "Feint" at Deutsche Bank in New York City, "The Float in the Sight of Things" at Ferens Art Gallery in Hull, "Mesmer" at in London, "Con Art" at Site Gallery in Sheffield, "Scarecrow" in Metzova Greece, and "Variety" at the De La Warr Pavilion Bexhill on Sea, UK, the first Singapore Biennale , "The Dictionary of War" in Berlin, "Kalanag" at David Risley Gallery London, "The Great Transformation – Art & Tactical Magic" at Frankfurter Kunstverein, and "Adventureland Golf" at the Grundy Art Gallery Hull, "Explode Every Day" at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art MASS MoCA, "Twenty-First-Century Silks" at Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, "The Act of Magic", STUK – House for Dance & Image, Leuven, and “Illusions Are Real” for Manif d'art 10 – La biennale de Québec. In 2002, Allen instigated the international group show "Con Art" with American curator Helen Varola and Carol Maund which explored art and conjuring's shared principles of 'cunning and conning' through a gallery exhibition (including Mark Wallinger, Simon Patterson, Sarah Charlesworth, and others), a symposium (chaired by Susan Hiller), and a live performance event including, amongst others, Forced Entertainment, Ursula Martinez, and Tommy Angel. In 2010, he co-curated the Hayward Gallery touring exhibition "Magic Show" with the writer Sally O'Reilly.