John Yau reviews the exhibition Phillip Allen: Oxblood at Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, on view through July 20, 2013.

Yau writes that in Allen's recent paintings "his long preoccupation with paint as matter has become increasingly evident … Allen doesn’t define his commitment through style but through an exploration of materiality. This is what distinguishes him from his contemporaries… Allen seems to be demanding that his paintings, in order to be true to our material condition, must recognize its own waste as both an inevitable byproduct of its creation and a constituent element of its existence. In doing so, Allen defines a studio practice that embraces the past while acknowledging the inescapable future."