JonMarc Edwards: SPOT ON

MATTER Studio GALLERY

5080 PICO Blvd, LA CA 90019

October 1st – October 29th, 2023

My paintings put me on the spot; they amplify my inner dialog. I want to express something meaningful while always pursuing a compelling picture.

– JonMarc Edwards

MATTER Studio Gallery is pleased to announce SPOT ON, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper produced by JonMarc Edwards from his Silver Lake studio. The work included in SPOT ON continues JonMarc Edwards’ eclectic relationship with color-filled abstract constructions and the superfluous by-products of our throw-away culture. JME mashes

appropriated images, found objects, and discarded materials around his Silver Lake studio to create incisive social commentaries onto sensual formalistic surfaces. JME accentuates the materiality by deftly organizing frames, textures, and containers with distressed packaging, unwanted toys, and scattered debris. These provocative pieces encourage the viewer to question the grotesque, high-minded, and banal reverie we find in the consumerism we rely on for comfort, sexual revelation, or spiritual awakening. SPOT ON celebrates the power of art to inspire us as JME finds beauty, hope, and meaning despite the formidable mess and decay that surrounds us in one way or another.

Edwards’ uncanny and amusing observations can be seen in the painting TRIAGE (2021), a brick-and-mortar collage of fashionable images compiled from direct mailings and gallery invitations deliberately obscured by painterly flourishes and colorful geometric shapes. Amid this visual cacophony, a simple square in the middle of the piece states the obvious; “TOO MUCH MONEY IN TOO FEW HANDS” (2022). In MAY DAY (2023), JME constructed a container holding plastic toys, reusable bags, and other discarded debris with what appears to be floating chunks of ice. The accumulation of random childlike components with fragments of what could be interpreted as the shorn ice shelf is a compelling message buried in a mixture of lost innocence and waste. Another painting, IXNAY FAUNTLEROY (2021), is a study in contrast with its playful embodiment of carefree colorful disks on one side and the austere strength of post and lintel composition on the other. But upon further observation, an element of biological

hazard cajoles the stoic architecture of silver, blue, and peach forms, resulting in a suspension of time, where impatience, desire for distraction, and quick fixes are delayed for the moment, a second chance is waiting, perhaps? Not all the work contains solid opinions or political messages; in the title painting, SPOT ON (2023), the artist has incorporated broken glass with colorful dried paint fragments to create an aura of mystery and a unique display of concrete sensuality.

JonMarc Edwards remains dedicated to exploring the relationship between visual languages and the process we utilize to coax the most from them. In addition to his painting, JMe has explored this dynamic in his immersive works, including the elegant spectacle, FLUTTER (2018), and his ongoing traveling showcase, DEBRITI -rhymes with graffiti – (2016 to present). This will be JME’s second show at MATTER Studio Gallery.