By Chris King
Photograph by Frank Di Piazza
Greg Edmondson, who teaches drawing and sculpture at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and is artist in residence at Thomas Jefferson School, has a show opening at Philip Slein Gallery this month—his first solo gallery show in St. Louis in 10 years. In November, Edmondson will be one of 11 artists, all with international reputations, showing in Bug: Out of the Box at the Berkshire Museum in Massachusetts. His work hangs on the walls of houses owned by Halle Berry and Elton John, and his credits include a Fulbright scholarship to study in Munich (1986–‘89) and an MFA from Washington University (1985). We spoke to him about his show, which opens March 3.
What’s the title of your upcoming show? Simple. It’s both true and ironic. All of the pieces are based on simple processes, simple procedures, though a lot of them become intricately detailed.
You’re from Tennessee. Down there, doesn’t “simple” also mean a little slow, a little crazy? This is all old-school, everything handmade, made by me, simply and laboriously. In a world that moves at this speed, anything made that slowly and laboriously seems crazy.
What did you draw for the show? There are tiny drawings on remnants of wallpaper from my Natural Selection show [gorgeous drawings of insects on floridly patterned wallpaper], very small and delicate. Then there are larger drawings, based on a simple, continuous system of marks. As long as you follow the rules, the system takes away one level of the dictatorship of the artist.
What are some titles? This show is unusual in that nothing is titled. I only use a title if it’s meaningful to the work. All of these pieces grow out of simple ideas. Everything is about growth or decay through a simple process, a repetitive action. I didn’t want to give the pieces titles disconnected from the work.
Why the Philip Slein Gallery? This is probably incriminating, but I haven’t done a solo show in a commercial gallery in St. Louis in 10 years, though I’ve shown elsewhere. Phil has opened this beautiful space, and he is genuinely committed to the artists he shows there.
Ten years ago—that’s when you went through a little lionization. For a moment, I was showing in Los Angeles, Chicago and Germany, all at the same time, and a couple of stars were buying my work. That was when I was single and didn’t have a kid, when I could travel to where the action was and didn’t have to hope it would come back to me.
How has the work itself changed? Back then, my work was mostly self-reflexive. It had a lot to do with me stumbling through the world. My current work uses me much less as a jumping-off point.
Are you less interested in yourself? I’m sure everyone else is. I still do my own self-searching, but I don’t feel the need to hang that.
You’d rather hang images of bugs. I am fascinated by insects. They all go through four distinct phases: egg, larva, nymph and adult—some skip the nymph stage. We go through similar stages, but they are more cloudy. Natural Selection was insect-based; Simple is not, though there are some related forms.
Are you an egg, larva, nymph or adult? I’ll shoot for nymph. It’s a generally smaller version of the adult. If it’s winged, it’s generally not able to fl y. It has wings, but they don’t work.
Your wings don’t work? I’m testing them out. This show should be a good test flight.
Simple runs through March 31 at the Philip Slein Gallery, 1319 Washington;
for details, call 314-621-4634 or visit www.philipsleingallery.com.
