Terry Allen
Terry Allen is a visual artist and songwriter. He was born in Wichita, Kansas and raised in Lubbock, Texas. He has received numerous awards and honors including a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Art Fellowships; Awards for the Visual Arts (AVA), Washington D.C.: Bessie Award (New York) and Isadora Duncan Award (San Francisco) Critic Awards for text, music, sets, costumes for PEDAL STEAL (Margaret Jenkins Dance Co.); AICA Award (International Assoc. of Art Critics) Best Show in a Commercial Gallery, Dugout I, LA Louver Gallery, Venice, CA, curated by Peter Goulds; induction into the Buddy Holly Walk of Fame (now West Texas Walk of Fame) in 1992; recipient of USArtists Fellowship/Oliver Fellow, 2009; First Townes Van Zandt Songwriting Award, Austin Music Awards, Austin, TX, 2017; Stephen Bruton Award, Lone Star Film Festival, Ft. Worth, TX 2017
His work has been shown throughout the United States and Internationally, including Documenta and San Paolo, Paris, Sydney and Whitney Biennales and is represented in major private and public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and L.A. County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, Houston & Dallas Museums of Fine Art and Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. LA Louver Gallery mounted a 50 years retrospective of Allen’s visual and aural works, THE EXACT MOMENT IT HAPPENS IN THE WEST, 2019.
His numerous public commissions can be found in such places as L.A.'s Citi-Corps Plaza, San Francisco Moscone Center, The Stuart Collection at UCSD in La Jolla, CA, Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA., and Denver, Houston and Dallas/Ft. Worth Intercontinental airports. His most recent public works are SCIOTO LOUNGE in Columbus, OH, his mural PLAYING LA JOLLA (for all it’s worth) for the Athenaeum Arts & Music Library, La Jolla, CA., and ROAD ANGEL, bronze & sound, Contemporary Austin, Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, TX.
Allen’s epic body of visual/aural works & theater piece DUGOUT was published in 2005 by Univ. of Texas Press (essays by Dave Hickey, David Byrne, Terri Sultan, Intro by Dana Fris-Hansen.) A monograph of Allen’s work TERRY ALLEN (essays by Dave Hickey, Marcia Tucker & Michael Ventura) was published in 2010 by Univ. Texas Press. JUAREZ, published by Nazraeli Press, 2023, etchings by T. Allen, Black Rock Editions.
Terry Allen has written for and worked extensively in both radio and theater. He has written and directed 4 highly acclaimed radio shows, TORSO HELL, commissioned by High Performance, BLEEDER, A RETURN TO JUAREZ & DUGOUT, commissioned and produced by New American Radio for NPR. Some of his selected staged works include JUAREZ, THE EMBRACE…ADVANCED TO FURY, ANTI-RABBIT BLEEDER, WARBOY and the backboard Blues, and GHOST SHIP RODEZ all of which he wrote and directed and made in conjunction with a body of visual/aural works.
PIONEER, set design, songs, & co-written with Jo Harvey Allen & Rende Eckert, directed by Robert Woodruff, Paul Dresser Production, performed throughout USA; LEON AND LENA (and Lentz), composer, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN; CHIPPY, Diaries of a West Texas Hooker, set design, co-written with Jo Harvey Allen, music co-written with Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Jo Harvey Allen, directed by Evan Yianoulis, co-produced by American Music Theater Festival, Philadelphia, PA & Lincoln Center's 'Serious Fun' series, New York, NY. COVENANT, co-written & performed with Jo Harvey Allen & recently performed in Ann Hamilton’s Tower at Oliver Ranch in Geyserville, CA & Kaneko Museum, Omaha, NE. Allen did music for Margaret Jenkin’s ROLLBACK, sets by Bruce Nauman & choreography Margaret Jenkins.
He has recorded 13 albums of original songs, including classics JUAREZ (1975) and LUBBOCK (on everything) 1979, both re-issued in 2016 on Paradise of Bachelors label. His most recent and highly acclaimed Paradise of Bachelor re-issue of Allen’s theater and radio work is PEDAL STEAL + FOUR CORNERS, 2019. His most recent album JUST LIKE MOBY DICK was released Jan 2020 on Paradise of Bachelors. Allen has performed his music throughout the United States and internationally and his songs have been recorded by such diverse artists as: Bobby Bare, Guy Clark, Little Feat, Robert Earl Keen, David Byrne, Cracker, Doug Sahm, Ricky Nelson and Lucinda Williams.
Allen has written numerous songs for and used in films, including Monte Hellman’s TWO LANE BLACKTOP, David Byrne’s TRUE STORIES, the music soundtrack for Wolf-Eckert Bueller’s AMERASIA, Tyler Turkle’s HARRY CREWS-Survival is Triumph Enough and composed musical score for Jane Anderson's Showtime Emmy nominated THE BABY DANCE. He is featured in Amy Manor’s documentary film LUBBOCK LIGHTS. He is also featured in the first BARN SESSIONS (THE MIDNIGHT HOUR) with Ryan Bingham, produced by Yeti and Anna Axster. Scott Ballew directed and produced EVERYTHING for all reasons, documentary of Allen’s 2019 live concert at Austin’s Paramount Theater. Allen appeared on SHINDIG, national television music show in 1964.
The Terry and Jo Harvey Allen Collection of Arts & Letters archive and The Terry and Jo Harvey Allen Center for Creative Studies (aka The Terry and Jo Harvey Allen Center for Unlearning) is permanently housed in The Southwest Collection, at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Terry Allen lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Austin, Texas with his wife, actress and writer, Jo Harvey Allen.