The Wick List

Viewing Joanna Allen: Subconscious Playground at Bowman Sculpture

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Inherent, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Inherent, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Horizon, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Horizon, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

The Wick Culture - Joanna Allen, Monument, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Monument, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Inherent, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Horizon, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Above Joanna Allen, Monument, Subconscious Playground. Image courtesy of Bowman Sculpture and photography © Sky Sharrock

Joanna Allen: Subconscious Playground

Bowman Sculpture
1 – 30 May 2025

Joanna Allen is an emerging sculptor to know: the Dorset-based artist has been working steadily with her own take on Surrealism, with a contemporary perspective that feels fresh. Her latest body of work, on show until the end of the month at Bowman Sculpture, has been four years in the making and feels like a pivotal moment for the artist.

Allen’s series of sculptures for Subconscious Playground begin with automatic drawings Allen makes, sometimes inspired by images that come to mind as she meditates – there is a special space in her studio, she has said, for that purpose. She then collaborates with an atelier in Italy to transform clay and plaster casts into marble and bronze.

As Allen’s title suggests, this solo exhibition is both playful and profound, an experimental and exploratory take on the inner workings of the mind and how they might manifest in the body – moving between figurative and abstract forms in a contemplative and intuitive way.