Allan Innman is a painter born in Oxford, MS and currently residing in Brandon, MS. He is a 2015 graduate of the MFA program at The University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art in Drawing and Painting and a 2006 graduate of the University of Mississippi BFA program in Graphic Design. His work has been featured in several online publications like Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, and Booooooom. His paintings were also featured in the publication New American Paintings. Allan has exhibited throughout the southeast as well as San Francisco and New York. In 2017 he was awarded a Visual Arts Fellowship by the Mississippi Arts Commission.
He is currently represented by Southside Gallery of Oxford, MS and Fischer Galleries of Jackson, MS.
Artist Statement
In my recent body of paintings, Flights of Fancy, I’m interested in conjuring moments of make-believe and fantasy, telling whimsical and mysterious stories derived from ancient myths and comic book adventure stories. In the paintings, toys and figurines are the main characters of the stories. They provide the action and tell the narratives central to the paintings. These normally inanimate objects spring to life in the paintings, just as they would in the mind of someone imagining a fantasy.
The process of composing a painting begins with a particular toy or figurine and building a story around it. In essence I am “playing” with these objects again. Handling them and allowing them to interact with other characters and backgrounds evokes certain nostalgia of playing with my own toys as if I were still a child.