On Wednesday, June 18, ҹɫÊÓƵ at Lake Tahoe Teaching Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Gallery Director, Molly Allen, invited the public to explore the dreamlike spaces of her art. Presented by the Capital City Arts Initiative (CCAI) and supported by the Ozmen Institute Global Studies Faculty Research Grant, “Soft Walls, Deep Water” is an exhibit that presents a series of intimate, surreal collage works that explore the slippage between interior and exterior, body and object, memory and environment.
At the gallery exhibition opening in the Carson City Courthouse, ҹɫÊÓƵ faculty, friends, and newcomers gathered to celebrate Molly as she unveiled her art. Reminiscing about the experience of creating the pieces, she told stories about her inspiration, including her time in Ireland where she let the landscape steer her through new ideas and compositions.
“Natural landscapes often and always influence my work,” Allen said. “I often find myself taking inspiration from the landscape here in Lake Tahoe but found myself inspired by the landscape in Ireland. The works for this exhibit were made in my studio here at the ҹɫÊÓƵ at Lake Tahoe, but many of the works on paper were influenced by my time at the Burren College of the Art in Ireland. Pieces in the exhibition are tied together conceptually by these two separate places, and are an exploration of collage place, space body, object, memory and environment.”
Throughout the process, Allen was guided by questions of the differences between the internal and external, and explored the experience of moving between the two.
“With this work I am most interested in thinking about place as fixed and recognizable, and space as internal, shifting, and felt,” Allen said about her vision. “These collages function as quiet thresholds between those two states. I am interested in architecture, design, and the uncanny, and I assembled these scenes to operate like psychological rooms—constructed yet unstable, poetic yet precise. The title ‘Soft Walls, Deep Water’ refers to these flexible barriers and permeable thresholds, with deep water as a metaphor for the human subconscious, where familiar elements are made strange, inviting the viewer to inhabit a space where perception is soft-edged and mutable.”
Allen's gallery features a mix of 2D and 3D art to make surreal collages. Allen's work is part of a continuing effort at the Tahoe Institute for Global Sustainability that focuses on community engagement across the sciences, engineering, art, humanities, and journalism while promoting discourse, critical thinking, and collaboration across interested parties to solve society's pressing challenges.
"Art is a crucial element in fostering discussions about the environment," Sudeep Chandra, Ph.D., Tahoe Institute for Global Sustainability director and foundation professor of biology at the ҹɫÊÓƵ said. "Allen's focus on space and place creates dialogue about how individuals interact with landscapes like Lake Tahoe, and promotes creative solutions to the problems we face today."
Walking through her gallery, the audience floats through Allen’s created spaces, winding through two- and three-dimensional pieces. In her initial conceptualization of the gallery, she planned to only use two-dimensions to explore her ideas, but after playing with a mix of dimensions, was inspired by the possibilities of mixing collage and sculpture to explore space.
“Allen sculpts small modular pieces (disconnected body parts, architectural elements like ladders, small fishes), not with a predetermined placement in mind, but to develop a store of raw materials that she can pull from,” said Chris Lanier, teaching professor of art at the ҹɫÊÓƵ at Lake Tahoe in his commissioned essay reviewing the exhibition titled ‘Perception is a Playground.’ “She works intuitively, and having these items helps her react to what she’s seeing as the piece comes together. These sculptural elements also help bridge the imaginary with the actual – these imagined tableaus actually extend from the surface of the picture, pressing a bit into the gallery, casting shadows. It’s still an invented reality, however – the sculptures are mimics of things, not the things in themselves.”
Allen’s exhibit will be open at the Capital City Arts Initiative Courthouse Gallery from June 16 – September 25, 2025. In future work, Allen hopes to incorporate the aspect of scale into her pieces, examining the push and pull of collage and sculpture. She is working now to create her next exhibition in 2026, at the . Until then, she can be found working diligently in the Holman Arts and Media Center at the ҹɫÊÓƵ at Lake Tahoe, hosting Summer Arts Workshops, teaching classes, and being inspired by the beautiful landscapes.
