Edmondson refers to her practise as ‘representation of painting’ rather than being representational.
Despite the overt use of faces as her image source, she regards her work as neither figurative paintings nor portraits. Employing the momentary seduction of fashion photography to lure the viewers into the world of idealised beauty and yearning, her paintings mimic the styles and codes of the desire industry to question the value and obsessions of aspirational perfection.
Just as in fashion photography, where the model is a support for the product and contextualises it, such images also support and contextualise Edmondson’s paintings. Although seductive, the ideal they present becomes hyper-real: the image is devoid of identity and presents a paradoxically empty facade, which is quickly consumed, giving way to the anxiety and obsession that assert these paintings as paintings. Beyond the image that gives them their presence, what is being portrayed here is the question of the aspirational perfection of painting itself. As the viewer engages with these works and scans the surface, shifting their reading between fantasy and the tropes of modernist abstract painting, the skin of the image and the skin of the painted surface, these works become paintings of unattainable desire.
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Since completing her MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 1995, Edmondson has shown internationally with galleries such as:
Victoria Miro Gallery (London), Laurent Delaye Gallery (London), Galerie Axel Thieme (Darmstadt), Archimede Staffolini Gallery (Nicosia), Andre Millan Gallery (Sao Paulo), Oscar Cruz Gallery (Rio), the apartment (Athens), Galeria Mário Sequeira (Braga), Rhodes and Mann (London), DomoBaal (London), The Sander Collection (Berlin), Nicholas Robinson Gallery (NY), Galerie Peter Zimmermann (Manheim), ArtFirst (London), UNIX Gallery (NY).
And she has also shown in public spaces and museums, including Whitechapel Gallery (London), Centro Brasileiro Britanico (Sao Paulo), Stills (Edinburgh), Museum Voorlinden (Netherlands), The Nunnery (London), Harris Museum (Preston), Rangers House Museum (London), Cornerhouse (Manchester), The Exchange-Newlyn Art Gallery, Bradford1-Bradford Museum, and most recently at Graves Gallery/Museums Sheffield as a part of the group exhibition 'HEADS ROLL, which was curated by Paul Morrison in 2018.
Her paintings have been shown in numerous curated shows, alongside the works of:
Alex Katz, Glenn Brown, Peter Doig, John Currin, Elizabeth Peyton, Yinka Shonibare, Jeff Koons, Tony Oursler, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Cindy Sherman, Mariko Mori, Marlene Dumas, Michael Craig-Martin, Paul Morrison, Mark Wallinger, Andy Warhol, and many more
Having been featured regularly on auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, a couple of her paintings have achieved more than six figures (USD) in the past.
Edmondson is a British artist.
After a 4-year stint in New York, she now lives and works in London, where she has been since the early 1980s.