Foley Gallery Relocating from Chelsea to 97 Allen

It’s time to revive the oft-traveled storyline about the Chelsea gallery scene defecting to the wilds of the Lower East Side. Not exactly fresh news, as it’s been happening for years already, but Gallerist tackles the issue in a piece published yesterday, “Supersize Chelsea.”

Buried in the depths of the article, however, is news that the eight-year-old Foley Gallery is relocating to the Lower East Side next month. But there’s a misprint. While the article cites that 97 Delancey as the new home, the true address is 97 Allen Street, former home to a neon sign business.

The inaugural exhibition – slated for September 7 – coincidentally features the work of another Allen. Thomas Allen, that is.

Playing the role of scientist, Allen enlists mid 20th-century books on the natural phenomenon of science(astronomy, physics, electricity, biology) and presents his research as if through the eyes of his 8-year old daughter. How would she understand and portray these theories and absolutes of science?

Allen’s signature use of cutting and repurposing book illustrations has not vanished. Instead of the pulp fiction genre, Allen plays with 50’s era versions of clean cut youths and domesticated moms. His unmistakable talent for creating the illusion of 3D in photography with his deft cuts and crimps, establishes a magical world in which a boy and girl play tag creating their own kind of electricity, a milkman makes a very special delivery in space, young toughs play marbles with the solar system and a mother busily sews her own version of “string theory.”