Eyes heavenward, the young woman at the center of Candace Allen’s “We Go High” piece stands six feet tall. Her box braids, carefully woven in dark navy and periwinkle, are windswept. She laughs at a sky buzzing with paper airplanes that cut through technicolor clouds. 

“It’s hyperbolic in the best kind of sense,” notes Allen. 

Her digital portrait is a centerpiece of her show “CandiiKismet: A Dream in Color” at the Anderson Brickler Gallery, on display now through May 14. Allen is the first and youngest female artist to have a solo show at the gallery.

“We Go High” is surrounded by mobiles of paper airplanes, which Allen hopes will immerse viewers into these colorful landscapes. Her illustrations have been called magical realism, but Allen grounds her images in both fantastical and tangible worlds. 

“It’s real because you know this girl, she’s your best friend’s older sister who you always thought was cool or your substitute teacher or someone who works at your dentist office,” says Allen. “She’s tall and feels good about herself. She’s important and has her own agency and voice. She’s on top of the world. These paper planes are racing past and piercing these clouds around her, and as they do, they’re colored themselves. That’s a feeling. That’s a moment.”

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