"Northern Most Point," color pencil on paper, 22"x30", 2012, courtesy of the artist
Later this spring, artist Greg Edmondson heads out of St. Louis after living and working here for more than 20 years. His first stop will be the Osage Arts Community in Belle, Missouri; that’ll be followed by a residency in Birmingham, Alabama. Before he goes, though, two concurrent exhibits offer a broad overview of his work.
“They’re two distinct shows,” Edmondson says, “but they’re interconnected.”
“Where It All Came From” is composed of nine works on paper hung in Philip Slein Gallery’s library space. Most of the pieces were made during a 2010 residency in Santa Fe, when color began reappearing in his work after Edmondson had spent several years working in black and white. “The Signal and the Noise,” at COCA’s Millstone Gallery, is larger in scale, with works ranging from 30 by 66 inches to as large as 7½ by 5½ feet. At first look, the work in both shows might appear to be abstract, but it’s all grounded in biological systems—DNA, unicellular organisms, superstrings. As that list suggests, the scale of both subject matter and art piece ranges from tiny to huge.
“Though the larger the work becomes, the more frequently it seen as a magnification of something tiny,” he notes with some amusement, “and the smaller the work, at the scale of which it’s presented, it often ends up being presented as a glimpse into something cosmic or vast.”
Though Edmondson’s work is well known within local art circles—and has been collected by Elton John and Halle Berry—Philip Slein says that Edmondson is a well-kept secret locally, although he shouldn’t be. “I started showing Greg back in the ’90s,” he says, “and I think he’s making the best work of his career right now, though I’m a fan of his earlier wood sculptures. The return of color has been really refreshing; he’s a natural colorist. His work has a beautiful appearance, but there's also a wonderful intellectual underpinning to it.”
Kathryn Adamchick, who recently rejoined COCA as the Millstone’s curator, says she’s wanted to show Edmondson’s work for a long time, and the timing seemed perfect.
“Greg is at a pivotal point right now,” she says. “Visually, his work seems very simple and elegant, but there’s a lot more going on under the surface; these new pieces are all about transference of information and scientific systems and junk signals. So the work is actually quieter, but it is all about noise.”
Hence the title of the show. “It pertains to a signal-to-noise ratio that’s embodied in either technological or biological transference,” Edmondson explains. “Every time information is transmitted, there is also a sort of noise, or junk, aspect to the signal.” He equates this phenomenon to the process of being in the studio, experimenting with materials and technique, much as a scientist does in the lab. “We’re always trying to tune into that signal—it’s like taking a long drive through the middle of nowhere,” he says of artists. “I know that I can hear a song, but I can’t quite get it, so I just keep tweaking the dial.”
“Where It All Came From” runs through April 9 at the Philip Slein Gallery, 4735 McPherson, 314-361-2617, philipsleingallery.com; “The Signal and the Noise” runs through April 25 at the Millstone Gallery at COCA, 524 Trinity, 314-725-6555, cocastl.org.
