Dan Allison, Open All Night, 1988, collograph; recipient of the Grand Prix, 17th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, 1987.
The exhibition included ten prints made between 1984 and 1989. The popular media images in Dan Allison’s flashy prints give off a particular atmosphere. The images come from mixing primitive and naïve art with spirituality originating in the old customs and beliefs of Mexico and Texas, where the artist comes from. Brash and unusual colours, hearts pierced with thorns, flaring roses, tears, long-legged women and diabolical men, all embellished and rimmed with various decorative elements, testify to the artist’s imagination and intemperance. Allison is a master of colour prints. At the beginning, he made colour etchings and aquatints, for which he received an award in Ljubljana. Later, he began to mix the techniques and became a master of colour collagraphy, which was shown at his small retrospective exhibition of ten prints.