Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery presents the solo exhibition, “June Edmonds: Full Spectrum,” a survey of the Los Angeles-based artist featuring more than 40 pieces from 1980 to 2021. The show marks the first opportunity to place Edmonds’ works in dialogue with one another and to offer overdue critical attention to her lifelong commitment to portraying Black positivity in her artistic practice.

“June Edmonds: Full Spectrum” runs through Dec. 11, 2021. The Laband is open to external guests from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Due to COVID safety protocols, advance reservations are required; no walk-ins will be permitted. Request a reservation. Concurrent with “June Edmonds: Full Spectrum,” Edmonds’ latest paintings are the focus of a solo exhibition at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles. Her “Joy of Other Suns” runs through Oct. 30, 2021.

Edmonds brought a vitality to her figurative canvases beginning in 1980, during her undergraduate studies, by depicting her personal and authentic experience as a Black woman in detailed portraits of her domestic space. Given that many young artists today, especially young Black artists, have reintroduced the representational genre to the fore, Edmonds’ scenes of Black domesticity are viewed within a contemporary light.

Her creative spectrum expanded from portraying narratives of Black people from her milieu to reclaiming and commemorating the stories, events and people of color who have shaped our nation’s history. Her methods have changed, too: Over the past dozen years, Edmonds has invented a fresh language in her painting practice by embracing more abstracted visual forms. Her celebrated recent compositions of female subjectivity and American flags are made up of palpable, luscious, abstracted brushstrokes applied methodically. These newer bodies of work have extended the metaphorical possibilities of her palette from the brighter earlier pictures, to sublime shades of color that are inspired by a spectrum of dark skin tones.

This unprecedented viewing experience allows visitors to consider how Edmonds’ dedication to producing vibrant and intellectually rigorous work centering on the Black American experience is made manifest throughout her career. Indeed, Edmonds has always been on an experimental trajectory to complicate and claim vital narratives that speak to a more culturally rich art world.

Edmonds was born in 1959 in Los Angeles, and earned her M.F.A. in painting from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia (1984), and her B.A. in art from San Diego State University (1982). 

Publication

The exhibition “June Edmonds: Full Spectrum,” will be accompanied by a 64-page catalogue with essays by dr. jill moniz and Laband Art Gallery Director Karen Rapp. It is designed by Tasheka Arceneaux-Sutton from Blacvoice Design