Von Allen’s bold paintings and delicate drawings arrive at the intersection of two significant influences: Abstract Expressionism and the bond between music (notably jazz) and painting. Born in 1961 in Jacksonville, North Carolina, Von Allen went to California to study painting at the Village Center for the Arts in Palm Springs. He moved to New York directly after school, befriending Ruth Kligman, an artist who was an insider when the Abstract Expressionist movement was at its peak. She also was notable as the mistress of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. “Over the course of his remarkable career,” Kligman stated in 2004, “Von Allen has made an exceptional contribution to the body of Abstract Expressionist work worldwide, and ranks as one of our most important new masters of the genre."