Having only followed LA-based painter Theodora Allen's work only from afar, we are thrilled that she's finally heading our way with a solo exhibition titled Intimate Terms at Stance Gallery.
"Painting is such a mutable medium that the possibilities within it are endless... There can be so much change and nuance. I feel it’s a medium that deserves full emersion or don’t bother." Theodora tells us in an interview we did ahead of the opening at the gallery on September 4, 2025.
C-P: Hi Theodora, thanks for doing this interview! I know you’re in the midst of preparing for your next solo show at Stance. I have yet to see your work in person so I’m very excited. What can visitors expect from the show? Another exhibition of yours, Oak, just ended its run at Kasmin in NYC. Will the new show be a continuation or will you be presenting works in any new directions?
T.A: Thanks, Koshik! The work is arriving in Stockholm as we speak. Each show builds on themes and a method of production that I’ve been developing over the past decade or so. It’s a growing and evolving visual language. Oak, at Kasmin, featured a single series of paintings, whereas Intimate Terms, brings together a collection of ideas—moving in and out of visual spaces that share a certain logic, but find resolution in different ways.
C-P: Your paintings are strikingly intricate and visually captivating and puzzling with an air of mysticism, and loaded with symbols. Aesthetically, it feels distinctively your own with its palette of icy blue and steely gray. Tell me a little about the ideas informed by your work.
T.A: I think of them as pure and essential in their message, though they can be visually complex. My approach to painting, from start to finish, is akin to piecing together a puzzle, or working out a riddle. I’m not as interested in creating riddles for others to solve, though I do feel the work poses questions rather than provides answers. The work in Intimate Terms focuses on various objects and life forms caught in the act of becoming—a germinating seed, a shield rendered as a sheer membrane, a structure consumed by flames. They are all changing from one state into another. The way they are painted undergoes a similar transformation, through a process of adding and removing paint. Coalescing the image through different states.
C-P: Run me through your painting process. Also, how does an average day in the studio look like for you?
T.A: I’ll have an idea in my head for a painting, and will make a note or a thumbnail sketch. If it resonates with me for long enough, I’ll work on a more detailed drawing, sometimes it’s a collage, which is sort of like a blue-print of negative shapes. At this stage I’m working out the relationships between forms. Fitting things together, playing with proportions, and looking at how and where forms meet or intersect. Once the central composition is more or less realized, I’ll start laying down paint. I’ve talked at length about my painting method in past interviews, so I won’t labor it too much here, but in short, I’m adding and removing layers of paint; revealing, dimming, or preserving the light source in the painting. I’m paying attention to what’s happening on the surface and working it out. The paintings develop over days or months. And of course, sometimes a studio day is simply answering emails or organizing thoughts.
C-P: Have you dabbled with any other expressions/media?
T.A: As a student I did. Honestly though, painting is such a mutable medium that the possibilities within it are endless. Doors keep opening the more you investigate and experiment and explore. There can be so much change and nuance. I feel it’s a medium that deserves full emersion or don’t bother.
C-P: Who are some of the artists that have served as inspiration to you?
T.A: James Lee Byars, Joseph Cornell, The Pre-Raphaelite movement (in theory), Botticelli.
C-P: You’re born and based in LA where you graduated with an MFA from UCLA in 2014. How do you find the city from the point of view of an artist today?
T.A: I’ll always love LA, but sadly it’s increasingly becoming a luxury city. It’s very expensive to live here, which makes it less hospitable to artists. It’s still a beautiful and ugly place. There’s still grit and there’s still nature and plenty of places to hide out. And there are real people and fakes, just like anywhere. If you’re from here, you don’t usually leave.
C-P: Finally, your resumé is very impressive. What might you still have on your bucket list as an artist?
All images courtesy of the artist.
Theodora Allen's Intimate Terms runs between September 4 - October 22, 2025, at Stance Gallery, Stockholm.