Allan was born In Nairobi, Kenya, and he lives in Los Angeles, California. The artist is currently a professor of Visual Art at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California.
Solo Exhibitions/ Room Installations
2008 Allan deSouza: A Decade of Photoworks 1998-2008, Talwar Gallery, New Delhi, India
2008 Fly Zone, University of Arizona School of Art, Tucson, AZ, US
(i don’t care what you say) Those Are Not Tourist Photos, Talwar Gallery,
New York, NY, US
2006 Clockshop Billboard: Public Art Project, Wilshire/Fairfax, Los Angeles, CA, US
2005 The Lost Pictures, Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
2004 The Lost Pictures, Museum of Art, Pomona College, CA, US
2003 people in white houses, Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
2001 Recent Works, Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
Terrain, Art In General, New York, NY, US
Terrible Beauty, Susanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles, CA, US
1998 All You Can Eat, The Upstairs at the Market Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US
1997 Threshold, Highways, Santa Monica, CA, US
Group Exhibitons/ Room Installations
2005 Contours: VIth Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie, Bamako, Mali
Recent Works w/- Yong Soon Min, University Art Gallery,
University of California, Irvine, CA, US
2001 Partition and Memory Conference: Terrible Beauty,
University of Notre Dame, IN, US
2000 Nonzero Sum Games. Collaboration with Yong Soon Min,
The Brewery, Los Angeles, CA, US
1997 AlterNatives. w/- Y.S. Min, Menschel Gallery, Syracuse, NY, US
1994 alter idem/performing personae. w/- Y. S. Min, Camerawork, London, England
Selected Group Exhibitions
2010 Dreamlands, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
2008 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, China w/- Yong Soon Min, China
7th Gwangju Biennale, as part of collective, MYDADA, South Korea
OPEN/INVITED e v + ¬ a 2008, Too Early for Vacation,
Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, Ireland
Emergency Biennale, Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok, Poland
2008 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
2007 Double Conciousness, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA, US
Humor Us, Barnsdall Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US
Lasting Foundations, Chicago Cultural Center, IL, US and travel
National Building Museum, Washington, D.C., US
Lens on Life: From Bamako to SF, Museum of the African Diaspora,
San Francisco, CA, US
2006 SNAP Judgements, International Center for Photography, New York, NY,
US and travel
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN, US
Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
2007 National Gallery of Canada, Ontario, Canada
2006 The Arrival, Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Biennale of the Canaries, Canary Islands
An Image Bank for Everyday Revolutionary Life, REDCat Gallery,
Los Angeles, CA, US
Another World, La Centrale Electrique, European Centre for
Contemporary Art, Brussels, Belgium
2005 desi(re),Talwar Gallery, New York, NY, US
Lasting Foundations: The Art of Architecture in Africa,
Courtyard Gallery, New York, NY, US
CorteFusión: Fotografía manipulada de Tijuana y LÁ, Centro Cultural
Tijuana, Mexico
2004 Africa Remix, Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Germany and travel
2005 Hayward Gallery, London, England
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
2006 Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2007 Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
2004 Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, US
Masala: Diversity and Democracy in South Asian Art, William Benton
Museum of Art, Storrs Mansfield, CT, US
Prism, 18th Street Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, US
African Art, African Voices, Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, US
Priority, Art in General, New York, NY, US
2003 Looking Both Ways, Museum for African Art, New York, NY, US and travel
2004 Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, US
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI, US
2005 Museum Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal
2006 Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA, US
2003 Un/Familiar Territory, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, US
Unnaturally, Contemporary Art Museum, University Of South
Florida, Tampa, FL, US and Travel
2002 Global Address, Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, CA, US
The Anthology of Art, Concept by Jochen Gerz Braunschweig School of Art, Germany
Borderless Terrain, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India
Dermatone, Cherrydelosreyes, Los Angeles, CA, US
2001 Phigment, Irvine Fine Arts Center, CA, US
Home and The World, India Center of Art and Culture, New York, NY, US
2000 Cosmic Dermis, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US
Imaging the Wunderboard, London Biennale, The Freud Centre, London, England
NY: ID/Y2K, Castle Gallery, The College of New Rochelle, NY, US
AR: Contemporary Art and Identity, Baum Gallery, Conway, AR, US
1999 Body/Language, Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, US
Not On Any Map, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
Betty Rymer Gallery, IL, US
The Mourning After, Barnsdall Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US
Dia*sperse, Black Paint Studio, Toronto, Canada
1998 Where I am, Galeria da Mitra, Lisbon, Portugal
Urban Encounters, New Museum, New York, NY, US
1997 Translocations, The Photographers Gallery, London, England and travel
City University, New York, NY, US
Transforming the Crown, Studio Museum, Harlem, NY, US
Out of India, The Queens Museum, Queens, NY, US
1996 National Graduate Photography, American Photography Institute,
New York, NY, US
AIM Benefit, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, US
Terminals, Curated by Connie Samaras, University of California
Irvine Gallery, CA, US
1994 Picturing Asia America, Houston Center for Photography, TX, US
Beyond the Borders, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, US
1993 AIM Show, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY, US
Whitney Biennial, Video collaboration with Yong Soon Min, included
in Shu Lea Chang's installation, "Those Fluttering Objects of
Desire”, Whitney Museum, New York, NY, US
1992 Realms of Glory, Walsall Art Gallery, Walsall, England
Those Fluttering Objects of Desire, collaboration with Yong
Soon Min, Exit Art, New York, NY, US
1991 Artists Engulfed Against War, Art In General, New York, NY, US
Interrogating Identity, Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY, US and Travel.
1990 Let the Canvas Come to Life With Dark Faces, Castle Museum, Nottingham, England
Ecstatic Antibodies, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, United Kingdom and travel
Chapter Arts, Cardiff, United Kingdom
1989 Fabled Territories, Leeds City Gallery, England and travel
Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada
Third Havana Biennale, National Museum of Havana, Cuba
1988 The Essential Black Art, Chisenhale Gallery, London, England and travel
Gardner Arts, Brighton, England
1987 Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London, England
PERFORMANCES
2008 New Geographies in Contemporary Art, conference presentation, Flyboy, Harvard
University, Boston, MA, US
2007 Two Gurus in Drag, video screening, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA, US
2006 ReDo (Allison Knowles), with Faith Wilding, School of the Art
Institute of Chicago, US
2005 Danço-te, music DVD, a project by Bia Gayotto
2004 X, at SsamzieSpace, Seoul, South Korea
2003 Will **** for Peace, collab. w/- Y.S. Min, at Oboro Gallery, Montreal, Canada
2002 Will **** for Peace, collab. w/-Y.S. Min, at Mezzanine Gallery,
University of Minneapolis, US
1998 Tress/Pass, outdoors, collab. w/- Y.S. Min, between Paris and Madrid
AWARDS
2008 Getty Fellowship Award in Visual Arts
EDUCATION
1995-97 MFA, Photography, University of California, Los Angeles, US
1993-94 Critical Studies, Whitney Independent Studies Program, New York, NY, US
1980-83 BA (Hons) Fine Art, Bath Academy of Art, England