Over the past five years especially, Davida Allen has earned considerable acknowledgment in Australia for her highly expressive imagery and was a participant in the international survey of recent painting and sculpture at MOMA (New York) in 1984. She draws upon intense everyday relationships for her subject matter which may reflect the pain caused by her father's death, the responsibilities of being a mother (she has four young daughters) or they may allude to the power of sexual attraction.
Davida Allen’s self-revelations are manifested either through exuberant oils, where the paint surface is frenetic with wild impasto brushstrokes, or through a series of gouache and pastel drawings where spontaneity and directness are paramount qualities. The artists sets out not so much to describe but to transcribe an experience, getting to the core of what matters to her.