Allen Chen was born in 1979 in Taiwan and immigrated to California in 1991. He received his BFA in Spatial Arts from San Jose State University in 2005 and MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. Allen has since completed artist residencies at Mendocino Art Center in California, the Red Lodge Clay Center in Montana, in addition to the residency at the Lawrence Arts Center. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi.