STEVENSON is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Paul Edmunds, his first at the Johannesburg space.
Comprising a series of sculptures, two-dimensional works and an installation, the exhibition explores the artist's sensory engagement with natural phenomena - light, shadow, form and gravity. Edmunds explores these ideas in his signature techniques of cut-out, geometric patterns, weaving and linocut, and revisits familiar objects such as weathered stones and skateboard wheels. He writes:
The works are stripped back to few variables, allowing an in-depth exploration and the registering of small changes. From this address of the particular, the universal is inferred and in this process, I examine my experience as a human animal held by gravity to a large orb, suspended in a near-vacuum, warmed by a star.
Moon, a small sculpture made of stone and woven copper wire, dating back to 1997, can be considered the departure point for this body of work. The artist's interest in subtle yet intricate process can also be seen in Orbit, a two-part sculpture previewed on the 2012 Joburg Art Fair.
Edmunds was born in 1970 in Johannesburg, and lives in Cape Town. He graduated with an MAFA from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, in 1995. He has held solo shows at Stevenson in 2011 and 2009; and at RH Gallery, New York, in 2011. He was included on The Rainbow Nation, an exhibition of three generations of sculpture from South Africa, at Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, in 2012; Coming of Age: 21 Years of the Artist Proof Studio at Johannesburg Art Gallery (2012); Impressions from South Africa at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011); and Production Marks: Geometry, psychology and the electronic age at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, KZNSA Gallery in Durban and Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg (2007/8). He won the Tollman Award in 2007, and the Volkskas Atelier Award in 1992. In 2010 he was awarded an Ampersand Foundation residency in New York.
The exhibition opens on Thursday 4 July, from 6 to 8pm.
The gallery is open from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturday from 10am to 1pm.
