Jonathan Allen (born 1966) is a visual artist, writer, and magician based in London. His performance persona "Tommy Angel", is a fictitious

evangelist Evangelist(s) may refer to: Religion * Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels * Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ * Evangelist (Anglican Church), a ...

and magician satirising the genre of

Gospel Magic Gospel magic is the use of otherwise standard stage magic tricks and illusions as object lessons to promote Christian messages. Gospel magic does not claim to invoke spirits or paranormal powers. Gospel magic is intended to present the Christian ...

, who Allen portrays in a variety of media including performance, photography, video, and writing.

Life and work

Allen was born in 1966 in the United Kingdom. He received a Fine Art MA from

Chelsea College of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further and higher education courses in fine art, graphic design, interior design, produ ...

in 1989 and was a

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

Fellow at Sheffield Hallam University from 1991 to 1993. From 2007 to 2008 he was the Arts Council England

Helen Chadwick Helen Chadwick (18 May 1953 – 15 March 1996) was a British sculptor, photographer and installation artist. In 1987, she became one of the first women artists to be nominated for the Turner Prize. Chadwick was known for "challenging stereotypic ...

Fellow at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and the

British School at Rome The British School at Rome (BSR) is a British interdisciplinary research centre supporting the arts, humanities and architecture established in Rome. Historical and archaeological study are at the core of its activities. History The British Sc ...

. Allen's work has appeared in many exhibitions including "Feint" at Deutsche Bank in New York City, "The Float in the Sight of Things" at

Ferens Art Gallery The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Dav ...

in Hull, "Mesmer" at in London, "Con Art" at

Site Gallery Site Gallery is an art gallery in Sheffield, England. It specialises in moving image, new media and performance based art. Site Gallery is based at Brown Street in Sheffield's Cultural Industries Quarter. It is an international centre for cont ...

in Sheffield, "Scarecrow" in Metzova Greece, and "Variety" at the

De La Warr Pavilion The De La Warr Pavilion is a grade I listed building, located on the seafront at Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. The Modern architecture, Modernist and International style (architecture), International Style buildin ...

Bexhill on Sea, UK, the first

Singapore Biennale The Singapore Biennale is a large-scale biennial contemporary art exhibition in Singapore, serving as the country’s major platform for international dialogue in contemporary art. It seeks to present and reflect the vigour of artistic practices in ...

, "The Dictionary of War" in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, "Kalanag" at David Risley Gallery London, "The Great Transformation – Art & Tactical Magic" at Frankfurter Kunstverein, and "Adventureland Golf" at the

Grundy Art Gallery The Grundy is an art gallery located in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. Its eclectic programme consists of regional historic to recent contemporary art exhibitions. Opened in 1911, it is owned and operated by Blackpool Council. It is a Grade II ...

Hull, "Explode Every Day" at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art

MASS MoCA The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing ...

, "Twenty-First-Century Silks" at Ryan Lee Gallery, New York, "The Act of Magic", STUK – House for Dance & Image, Leuven, and “Illusions Are Real” for Manif d'art 10 – La biennale de Québec. In 2002, Allen instigated the international group show "Con Art" with American curator Helen Varola and Carol Maund which explored art and conjuring's shared principles of 'cunning and conning' through a gallery exhibition (including

Mark Wallinger Mark Wallinger (born 25 May 1959) is an English artist. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation '' State Britain''. His work ''Ecce Homo'' (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy th ...

, Simon Patterson,

Sarah Charlesworth Sarah Edwards Charlesworth (March 29, 1947 – June 25, 2013) was an American conceptual artist and photographer. She is considered part of The Pictures Generation, a loose-knit group of artists working in New York in the late 1970s and early ...

, and others), a symposium (chaired by

Susan Hiller Susan Hiller (March 7, 1940–January 28, 2019) was a US-born, British conceptual artist who lived in London, United Kingdom. Her practice spanned a broad range of media, including installation, video, photography, painting, sculpture, per ...

), and a live performance event including, amongst others,

Forced Entertainment Forced Entertainment is an experimental theatre Experimental theatre (also known as avant-garde theatre), inspired largely by Richard Wagner, Wagner's concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, began in Western theatre in the late 19th century with Alfred J ...

Ursula Martinez Ursula Martinez (born 1966) is a British theatre maker, performer and director. She grew up in South London, the daughter of an English father and Spanish mother, both teachers. After graduating in French and Theatre at Lancaster University, sh ...

, and Tommy Angel. In 2010, he co-curated the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

touring exhibition "Magic Show" with the writer Sally O'Reilly. Allen has written widely on art and cultural history for visual art journals including

Contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

Tate Etc. ''Tate Etc.'' is an arts magazine produced within Britain's Tate organisation of arts and museums. It has the largest circulation of any art magazine in the world. The magazine was edited by Simon Grant from its launch in 2004 until the Autumn 202 ...

The Brooklyn Rail ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is an American publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics, based in Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, critics, and ...

, and

Cabinet Magazine ''Cabinet Magazine'' is a quarterly, Brooklyn, New York–based, non-profit art and culture magazine established in 2000. ''Cabinet Magazine'' also operates an event and exhibition space in Brooklyn. In 2022, ''Cabinet'' transitioned its magazi ...

, for which he guest-edited an issue dedicated to magic in 2007. He is a member of The Magic Circle, the UK organisation for professional magicians, and a curator at The Magic Circle Museum. In 2013 Allen identified a previously unknown

tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

deck within the museum's collections hand-painted c.1906 by the English artist and mystic

Austin Osman Spare Austin Osman Spare (30 December 1886 – 15 May 1956) was an English artist and occultism, occultist who worked as both a draughtsman and a painter. Influenced by Symbolism (arts), symbolism and Art Nouveau, his art was known for its clear use o ...

. He subsequently edited the first critical survey of Spare's cards.In 2025, Allen co-curated the exhibition “Tarot – Origins & Afterlives”at the

Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cros ...

, London.

Tommy Angel

Tommy Angel is the name of a fictional 'gospel magician' who features in some of Allen's photographic and performance work. Angel, who has been described as "Billy Graham meeting David Copperfield via Donald Rumsfeld", satirises the evangelical entertainment form known as

. Large black-and-white photographic images depicting Tommy Angel, were exhibited at The De La Warr Pavilion,

Bexhill on Sea Bexhill-on-Sea (often shortened to Bexhill) is a seaside town and civil parish in the Rother District in the county of East Sussex in South East England. It is located along the Sussex Coast and between the towns of Hastings and Eastbourne. H ...

, UK (2005), David Risely Gallery (2006), and

(2006). Allen has performed the persona of Tommy Angel in a diverse contexts including cabaret venues, church halls, and art galleries, including the

on the occasion of Eyes, Lies and Illusions, and in 2006 at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...

, as well as the ZOO Art Fair. A fake dollar bill bearing the face of Tommy Angel and various parodic evangelistic slogans was introduced into public circulation (via pickpockets using their skills in reverse) during the 1st Singapore Biennale in 2006. Between 2004 and 2006, British singer-songwriter

Paloma Faith Paloma Faith Blomfield (born 21 July 1981) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. After signing with Epic Records in 2008, Faith released her debut album, '' Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?'' (2009), which produced the UK ...

was Allen's co-performer, appearing alongside Tommy Angel under the stage name 'Miss Direction'. Tommy Angel was the subject of a feature article in the Las Vegas-published ''

Magic Magic or magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces ** ''Magick'' (with ''-ck'') can specifically refer to ceremonial magic * Magic (illusion), also known as sta ...

'' in February 2006.

References

External links

Jonathan Allen official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Jonathan 1966 births Living people British male magicians English contemporary artists