Meet Allen Collins

Collins is a contemporary Haitian American artist with a concentration in Drawing and Painting as well as Printmaking. He is finishing a B.F.A. Degree at Georgia State University.

Allen Collins, Face My Fears, 2021, Acrylic on canvas

I started drawing in elementary school and by the time I entered high school I was taking AP art classes. I began with creating cartoon sketch pieces. Then I focused more on hyper-realism portraits. Finally I landed on abstraction. 

My artwork explains the world of the unseen. I was influenced by Black scholars like Dr. Delbert Blair and Bobby Hemmitt. I give my audience a look into the world of their ancestors. Most of my artwork has NO eyes, only the body of the individual. The identity has been STOLEN similar to that of African Americans.

A Jamaican woman told me to take over the world and tell OUR story. I never saw that woman again, but her words still resonate.