Phillip Allen, Farm, Olivia Jia, Faun at The Approach, East London, Sept/Oct 2026 – Before the new additions to the backlog complete washes this and lots more away (and Frieze Week really does kick in, although so far it doesn’t really feel like it wants to this year), the idea of new work from Phillip Allen was enticing. The show opened back in late September, his new Show, Farm was only in the Annexe, the much smaller of the two art spaces at The Approach which suggested two things, there wouldn’t be too much work and seeing it properly on opening night in that small room would probably be impossible. Wait a couple of days, let the opening night dust settle and take a walk over. There’s two shows just opened, do like that one show is called Farm and the other Faun, the big room is hosting, well, let’s let the Gallery tell you…
“The Approach is pleased to present Faun, the debut solo exhibition at the gallery by Philadelphia based artist Olivia Jia. The show takes its title from the flora and fauna that recur within the show: decorative vases and ceramics embellished with motifs from nature, lattice windows from Chinese Gardens, alongside ornaments in the form of animals or flowers”.
First thing you note is the space afforded each piece, before you even focus in on what they are, clearly someone thinks they are special. I thought I knew nothing of Olivia Jia, hang on though, that’s not true, there was work here back at the start of the year, in the Annexe, part of this year’s Condo, alongside the work of Leroy Johnson, it immediately comes flooding back, well no, not flooding, flooding isn’t the work, Olivia’s work doesn’t flood, it kind of quietly just waits there for you. Small paintings and a very minimalist hang in the big gallery this time, paintings that deserve the space, painting that in their own unassuming way, so fill the space in that was a delicate fragrance would, but they’re not delicate, or fragrant, they’re something else, these small booked size pieces, these intriguing paintings. And they are intriguing, they’re strong, they’re rather beautiful, they feel very personal, they need to be read or at least that dusky palette quietly explored here in this perfectly hung rather (I want to say intriguing again) show…
Jia’s own identity as the child of Chinese immigrants to the United States deeply informs the work, blending images of traditional East Asian ephemera with historical artefacts sourced from Pennsylvania – the American state in which Jia was raised. She draws from museum archives, images found online, family photographs, combined with invented imagery based on memories and family stories to construct a personal history told through objects. Subject matter includes, among others: a painting by Raphaelle Peale (an important Philadelphia painter from the 1800s); Siebold’s magnolia (a flower native to East Asia); an 18th Century Chinese figure of a swallow; an 18th century Pennsylvanian-German tin lantern, a carved lacquer dish, and a silver snuff box shaped as a book, etched with flower motifs. Exhibited together, these images form a constellation where different paintings speak to one another and reflect how identity can be formed through objects and belongings that might otherwise seem at odds. Neil Clements explains that, “what is being honed in these paintings is an iconographic system, one that reflects on the points at which individual experience intersects with collective accounts.”
Now a Phillip Allen painting is always a good thing, is it too frivolous and throwaway to say a Phillip Allen painting always makes me want to go buy a fancy meringue, his painting do feel like sugary icing, no, that’s way too throwaway, I do love his work though, I do like seeing his paintings on a wall, viewing them from the sides, walking around them, I always want to touch them (no, I never have). There’s only three new pieces this time, most of the Annexe is taken up with a collection of colourful felt tip drawings…
Allen first began working on paper for his debut solo exhibition at The Approach in 1999, making pastel drawings on newsprint inspired by the sculptures he was producing at the time. Drawing has since remained a thread running through his practice, sharing a common visual language with his paintings. The title Farm refers to Allen’s process of propagation: cultivating ideas through drawing that may later find their way into painting. More recently, the relationship between the two has become more fluid, each feeding into the other.
Have to be honest here, the felt tip work does little for me, it may give him that sense of immediacy but that can be found in many ways and these pieces like the sweet intensity without really replacing it with anything else. The fact that there is a body of pieces, that the abstract repeats if you look, but no, it is the three paintings that hold the real attention in this latest exhibition, I can’t really find the bridge between the drawings and the paintings, has anyone seen that confounded bridge? I do like his paintings though, worth the walk just for his paintings, I need to do the walk again and see if I can see the bridge (not that the walk to the Approach is a long one, don’t think I’ve missed a show here in years). A Phillip Allen painting are always worth a walk… (sw)
Here’s another #43SecondFilm…
The Approach is found on the first floor above the pub, 47 Approach Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY, Access to the gallery via The Approach Tavern pub, there’s a not that obvious brown door at the end of the left side of the bar that the staff may or may not feel like pointing out to you. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday,12–6pm or by appointment. Both Faun and Farm are on now and both run until 31st October 2026.
Previously
Lots more Approach coverage on these pages (years of it)
As always do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show
