Our shared commitment to supporting artists and creating space for ambitious exhibitions has also brought us into partnership with Camden Arts Projects.
Like TM Gallery, Camden Arts Projects – which is located at 176 Prince of Wales Road, London, NW5 3PT – is a not-for-profit organisation, established by artists Philip and Charlotte Colbert, with a focus on presenting ambitious contemporary art to a broad audience.
As part of the partnership, TM Lighting is providing gallery-quality lighting for its exhibition programme, supporting both the space and the presenting artists.
The current exhibition, Taking Shape, brings together a collection of works by internationally acclaimed British artist Allen Jones. Following its success, the exhibition has been extended until 13 September, giving visitors longer to experience the show.
Working closely with Allen Jones, TM Lighting developed the lighting for the exhibition to reveal the interplay of light, form and shadow across the works. Here, illumination becomes an integral part of the viewing experience, revealing new perspectives and relationships as visitors move through the space.
For this Artist Spotlight, we had the privilege of speaking with Allen Jones about Taking Shape, his approach to sculpture, and the relationship between his work, light and space.
Taking Shape: Allen Jones
Closes 13th September 2026
Camden Arts Project
Interview by TM Lighting
1. You have described yourself as a painter, even when working in three dimensions. What is it about painting (particularly light, line and colour) that continues to shape the way you think about sculpture?
Drawing is a most immediate form of self-expression seeing things primarily as flat graphic shapes.
Painting is about transforming a three-dimensional visual experience into a two-dimensional fact.
Most of my sculptures are about creating the illusion of volume by the interplay of those graphic shapes.
2. Movement seems to run throughout Taking Shape, whether it is created through the viewer moving around a work, the changing position of a figure, or the work itself physically moving, as with Large Swivel. What interests you about capturing movement in a static artwork?
Creating movement (life) is a human impulse dating back to the Stone Age and cave painting. Invoking or involving the viewer’s sense of touch makes the work more immediate.
Colour is so integral to the identity of works such as Red Queen and Blue Queen, while the Perspex introduces transparency, reflection and shifting shadows.
3. How do you think about the relationship between colour and light when you are making a work?
A coloured mark painted on a transparent Perspex surface is optically transmitted to the edges of the plastic, creating a virtual line of colour only visible from certain viewpoints.
A limited range of coloured Perspex is available where the colour becomes iridescent along the edges, increasing the dynamism of the perceived image as though outlined in neon.
4. Lighting can transform how a sculpture is perceived, particularly works whose surfaces, colour and shadows change as the viewer moves around them. What do you hope the lighting in Taking Shape brings out in the works, and are there particular qualities or details you are pleased to see revealed in the gallery?
I once considered a sculpture’s shadow to be coincidental but came to realise that it could become an integral part of the viewer’s experience, adding an elusive dimension to an otherwise solid object.
Photography: Almine Rech