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John McAllister

John McAllister was born in 1973 in Slidell, Louisiana. He received a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999 and an MFA from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, in 2007. Today the artist lives and works in Florence, Massachusetts. 

McAllister’s large-scale paintings and panoramas upend traditional dictates of perspective through his pairing of flat pictorial surfaces with rich illusionistic depth. Rendered in a characteristically vibrant palette concentrated on a close range of colors (often lavenders, reds and purples), the artist’s work achieves the distinctive and abundant visual effect of a  dreamlike garden in full bloom. McAllister’s obsession with the spectral qualities of light and its representation brings his work into conversation with the legacy of French Fauvist and Impressionist masters such as Matisse, Bonnard, and Monet.

Against backgrounds of geometric and organic patterns that suggest exotic textiles, wallpaper, or other artworks, his still lifes, landscape, and interiors are steeped in an atmosphere of elegance leaning towards decadence. Approaching his process with the dual perspective of contemporary viewer and artist, McAllister creates works that open a window to the poetic and metaphorical, enticingly accessible and rendered in vivid color.

John McAllister has recently presented solo and group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Emden, Germany; Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo, Japan; Consortium Museum, Dijon, France; MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, US; Brattleboro Museum of Art, VT, US; Cue Art Foundation, New York, NY, US; and Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, US, among others.

His works are held in major public collections, including the Consortium Museum, Dijon, France; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, US; and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, US.

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