Much of Jess Allen’s work explores the theme of ‘Presence through Absence’. Subjects such as empty chairs and sofas, books left behind by an absent reader, and empty theatres and cinemas, suggest the past presence of a person or people. The works shown here mark a new direction for Allen: self-portraits that turn the focus towards the face and the inner self of the painter. In repetition, Allen draws attention to the many variables held within a single subject. Through close cropping and obscured features, she reassembles the self as something fragmentary and provisional, a memory of who one is or has been, pieced together and re-examined. Rather than offering answers, these works think through the dilemmas one encounters within oneself over the course of a life, never arriving at a fixed image.