Terry Allen is a visual artist and musician. Born in Kansas and raised in west Texas, he now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Extending a narrative tradition about the North American frontier, Allen explores the social and cultural edges of the American Southwest through the daily lives of people on the periphery of ‘normative America’.

Allen began making prints in 1970 at the invitation of Jean Milant at Cirrus Editions in Los Angeles. His most recently editioned work is a portfolio of eleven lithographs, Bottom of the World, completed in 2013 at Landfall Press in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Over the course of four decades, Allen has created eighty editioned prints, including several suites and portfolios, among them, Juarez (1976), Debris from the Text (1981), Positions on the Desert (1990), and Bottom of the World (2013).

Allen’s operatic works of art evolve like a libretto, beginning in the middle of a story and rarely resulting in resolution, promise, or conclusion. They embrace glimpses of movie magazines, too much make-up, little red pills, long strips of asphalt, one legged dancers, the romance of saltine crackers, neighbors shooting dogs on Christmas, and the emotional toll of the Vietnam war. Peculiar states of order (or disorder) unreel in episodic and non-linear melodies of images and songs. His mostly post-World War II vignettes parley earthy aspects of American daily life (with a distinct preference for the western U.S. and its margins), exploring fragments of desires, wayward temperaments, and other human caprices such as tenderness, violence, love, humor, paradox, insincerity, friendship, indiscretion, melancholy, judgment, sex, death, commerce, and pleasure.

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Pillow in the Mountains, from Juarez, 1976; lithograph; image and paper: 320×320 mm

Room with Horns, from Juarez, 1976; lithograph; image and paper: 320×320 mm

Ditch with Heart, from Juarez, 1976; lithograph; image and paper: 320×320 mm

Bed with Heart, from Juarez, 1976; lithograph; image and paper: 320×320 mm

Bed with Ditch, from Juarez, 1976; lithograph; image and paper: 320×320 mm

Pillow in the Mountains II, from Juarez, 1976; lithograph; image and paper: 320×320 mm

Juarez LP Album cover

Angel Whispers, 1982; Lithograph; Image size: 562 x 768 mm

Debris from the Text–R, 1981; Lithograph; Image size: 775 x 605 mm

Debris from the Text–I, 1981; Lithograph; Image size: 775 x 605 mm

Debris from the Text–N, 1981; Lithograph; Image size: 775 x 605 mm

Debris from the Text–G, 1981; Lithograph; Image size: 762 x 598 mm

Collaboration with Douglas Kent Hall; Positions on the Desert – J, 1990; Lithograph; Image size: 770 x 991 mm

Collaboration with Douglas Kent Hall; Positions on the Desert – U, 1990; Lithograph; Image size: 772 x 991 mm

Collaboration with Douglas Kent Hall; Positions on the Desert – A, 1990; Lithograph; Image size: 769 x 989 mm

Collaboration with Douglas Kent Hall; Positions on the Desert – R, 1990; Lithograph; Image size: 769 x 990 mm

Collaboration with Douglas Kent Hall; Positions on the Desert – E, 1990; Lithograph; Image size: 765 x 991 mm

Collaboration with Douglas Kent Hall; Positions on the Desert – Z, 1990; Lithograph; Image size: 771 x 989 mm

Collaboration with Douglas Kent Hall; Las Golondrinas, 1991; Lithograph, chine collé; Image size: 772 x 1121 mm

Good Fucking Luck, 1995; Etching; Image size: 204 x 144 mm

Hitter, 1996; Etching; Image size: 145 x 202 mm

Holding, 1996; Etching; Image size: 134 x 176 mm

Caged, 1996; Etching; Image size: 185 x 150 mm

Rage, 1996; Etching with collaged black lace; Image size: 752 x 750 mm

Holdings, 1998; Etching; Image size: 202 x 148 mm

All Artists Try…, 1998; Etching; Image size: 177 x 150 mm

Meanwhile, 2001; Intaglio; Image size: 300 x 225 mm

Death Rats, 2001; Intaglio; Image size: 150 x 150 mm

Broken Hand Angel, 2001; Etching; Image size: 303 x 225 mm

The Secret Admirer, 2001; Etching; Image size: 302 x 222 mm

Looking Back, 2001; Lithograph, etching; Image size: 562 x 763 mm

Ghost Arm, 2006; Lithograph, etching; Image size: 710 x 432 mm

Thug Dog, 2007; Lithograph; Image size: 557 x 432 mm

Hold on to the House, from Bottom of World, 2013; Lithograph; Image size: Recto: 522 x Recto: 810 mm

Bottom of the World, from Bottom of the World, 2013; Lithograph; Image size: Recto:262 x Recto: 199 mm

Angels of the Wind, from Bottom of the World, 2013; Lithograph; Image size: Recto: 592 x Recto: 905 mm

Do They Dream of Hell in Heaven, from Bottom of the World, 2013; Lithograph; Image size: Recto: 365 x Recto: 763 mm

Sidekick Anthem, from Bottom of the World, 2013; Lithograph; Image size: Recto: 429 x Recto: 603 mm