After working for over 45 years in a variety of settings- fundraising, home renovation, stay-at-home dad, and social work-Allen decided to (finally!) devote himself to making sculpture, a passion he’s nurtured for decades. Allen’s professional work speaks to his skills in program management, team building, curriculum development, training, individual and group clinical work as well as project management. He was the Director of Development for the MA American Heart Association, ran a general contracting business for 12 years, and worked for the MA Department of Public Health as the Director of HIV supportive housing services.  He also managed HIV housing services and developed supportive housing for the City of Boston, He created and managed two innovative residential treatment programs in Roxbury, MA at The Dimock Center for women with trauma, mental health and substance abuse issues. Allen organized and facilitated groups for abusive men for 13 years, developing a new curriculum for the program focused on building skills rather than shaming attendees.

Allen lives in Jamaica Plain, MA and works out of OMOS Studios (the Other Man Of Steel) located in his converted two car garage. Allen is self-trained. He's taken classes at MASSART (MA College for Art and Design) and Stonybrook Fine Arts Studio and been mentored by David Stromeyer, the renowned VT-based sculptor. He is an avid reader about art history and individual artists. He regularly visits art museums in and around Greater Boston and when traveling in the US and abroad, makes museum visits his first priority.  

Allen’s career as an artist started later in his life, but as he notes, "My life experience is quite rich and complex, filled with plenty of adventures that inform my work. I’ve lived a very full and purposeful life, and I draw on this reservoir of accumulated experience to make my art.” His work reflects a wide range of themes and stories, inspired by social justice issues, Jewish themes, personal events or flights of the imagination. Allen has participated in gallery shows at the Uforge Gallery in Boston, MA, Salem State University in Salem, MA, the Imago Gallery in Warren, RI, the Attleboro Art Museum in Attleboro, MA and Hebrew College in Newton, MA. He has been a part of several online gallery shows. 

Allen exhibited his sculptures for the last nine years (2017-2026) in the annual Flying Horse Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit at the Pingree School in South Hamilton, MA. Allen has two sculptures as part of the permanent collection of the Pingree School, Stairway to Heaven and Hot Still Scape in 3-D. His sculpture, 13 Acts of Creation, appeared in the 2019 NESA-sponsored show at the Crane Estates (Trustee of Reservation ) in Ipswich, MA. Allen also had sculpture in the NESA-sponsored show at the MA Horticultural Society show at Elm Banks in Wellesley, MA in 2018. Allen participated in Jamaica Plain Open Studios for many years where hundreds of people visited his studio during the weekend.  He'll be participating in JPOS in September 2026.

Allen participated in the Studio Without Walls show in Brookline, MA from 2019-2024. Monument to Lost Gloves, was part of the in 2019 show and in 2020 he showed Yet Another Sunrise...Tomorrow. In 2021, his Trees of the Garden of Eden was in the SWW show.  In 2022, Allen installed his work about genocide called Blossoms of a Thousand Deaths. He showed Cathedral of 28 Secrets in the 2024 show.

Allen showed Monument to Lost Gloves in the 2021 Sculpture Now!  Sculpture Exhibition at The Mount in Lenox, MA.  Allen's sculptural tribute to the Stuart Davis masterpiece, Hot Still Scape-7th Avenue Style in Six Colors (at the MFA, Boston) was displayed for a year in Leslie's Retreat Park in Salem, MA.

Allen has donated several of his sculptures to non-profit organziations and schools. A puzzle piece sculpture was donated to a New Jersey-based autism organization (the puzzle piece is the logo for autism) for its annual auction. Allen donated a decorative coat rack for a Volunteers for America fundraiser and also donated a puzzle piece sculpture to a teen afterschool program, Boston Scores. To honor his participation in the Flying Horse Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit at the Pingree School in South Hamilton, MA, Allen donated his musical sculpture, Stairway to Heaven, to the school. It was placed over the entryway to the creative arts building. He also donated his sculptural tribute to the Stuart Davis masterpiece, Hot Still Scape, to the school in 2024.

Allen was  a member of the New England Sculptors Association (NESA) for many years and served on its board of directors.  Allen has been married for over 52 years to Sherry Grossman, an early childhood educator, life coach and yoga instructor. They have two sons and two grandchildren.