Jules Allen | Artist Overview

Jules Allen, Professor Emeritus, City University of New York, Department of Art and Design at Queensborough College, is an award-winning photographer who creates reality-based images as well as metaphorical documents of which the primary foundation is grounded in behavior, enlightenment and irony. Allen’s work expresses the essential truth, that a culture’s power is clearest when presented on its own terms. He shares the belief of photographer Diane Arbus, who states; “the more specific a thing is, the more general.” The artist, Danny Dawson, says wryly that Mr. Allen has a “keen eye for the obvious;” his lifelong work is evocative of the contemporary black experience. The images place subjects, drawn from the richness of black life, within universal paradigms. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants. His aesthetic vision is rooted in music, gesture and ritual which renders American culture both locally and abroad. His photographs are in museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, The National Gallery. He has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and abroad and his extensive commercial and corporate work has been seen on the covers of numerous periodicals, magazines, journals albums and compact discs.