May 13th - 29th 2010

‘I am interested in McAllister because I see him as a young painter not yet fully formed, whose enquiry into things that interest him is persistent and probing, as a painter whose perception grows steadily more intense and who deliberately trains his hand to keep pace with it, but never to outrun it so that a picture becomes a spiritually empty tour-de-force. I am interested in him because he is that increasingly rare phenomenon, a painter who knows how to paint and does so with immaculate integrity. He uses his skill on sotto voce performances that will for ever be unheard in the echoing caverns of Tate Modern but which, like so many other painters whose still lives have over the past three centuries pleased their collectors with subtle insights into form, light and composition, depend on the private and discerning eye for the survival of the genre.’

At the time of this highly successful exhibition Ian McAllister was asked how he saw his work developing in the future. With the confidence of youth, he stated that he had found his niche in the rendering of exquisitely detailed still life and that he would continue along those lines. He did not. His following exhibition, in 2004, gave the lie to this prediction; yes, he presented us with some beautiful still lifes à la manière de McAllister but he also gave us a number of looser still life studies – veritable pochades. Alongside these he showed still lifes nodding towards the surreal; these were the works which most appealed to George Melly, who opened Ian’s show. In his introduction to that catalogue Melly also admired ‘his objects against neutral backgrounds, light or dark is immaterial,’ which ‘assume weight and dignity.’ He ended his essay with the question, ‘What port is his destination?’ Unfortunately, George did not live to see Ian’s 2007 exhibition which displayed more of the gravitas which he so applauded. The hauntingly beautiful sunrise landscapes, in particular, pointed to a maturer, more reflective Ian. Now, in this his fifth outing at Jorgensen Fine art, far from continuing along the same lines, he has opted to expand his oeuvre by delving into the world of sculpture. Still a young man, we look forward to following the paths which Ian takes into the future.