Simon Allen was in born in 1967 in Bristol, in the United Kingdom. He completed a Degree in Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art in 1989. Moving to London he initially worked as a technician at Waddington Galleries, and then he went on to train as a gilder at Stewart Heslop Frames, where he became Studio Manager.
Returning to Cornwall in 1994, he started to pursue his own art, and devoloped his unique gilded wall sculptures. He now works as a full time sculptor in his studio on the edge of Cornish moorland, near to St.Ives. He is married, with two daughters.
Dr Tom Flynn, a UK-based art historian, critic and journalist, writes
"Allen has conceived a modus operandi that incorporates two distinct but conjoined disciplines. The carving stage is physical and expressive. The rhythmically rippling surfaces, swooping undulations and swirling peaks and troughs represent the trace elements of a physical carving process that has its own bodily rhythm. By contrast, the painstaking application of gesso and ‘bole’ — the gilder’s ground formed from clay and pigment — and the gentle brushing on and burnishing of white gold leaf call on a more contemplative cast of mind. It is the tension between these two modes of awareness that gives the finished works their singular presence. "
Simon's work is represented by Beaux Arts Gallery, Bath and London.