Now known as the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing , written by James Weldon Johnson and composed by his younger brother, J. Rosamond Johnson iterates the definition of resilience by stating: Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us / Sing a Song full of the faith that the present has brought us / Facing the rising sun of our new day begun / Let us march on, Till Victory is won. Featuring ten recent works, June Edmonds’ show “Meditations on African Resilience,” at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, visualizes these words. Edmonds not only transcends abstraction: She firmly establishes her voice as a 21st-century painter who unapologetically interrogates the limited lens of the art-historical and its gatekeepers.
Affirmation (2024) sings with blue and green windmills twirling acrobatically over sweet potato orange, cherry red and sunlight yellow curves. The vibrating complementary hues with superimposed licorice eyelash strokes resemble a staring time portal inviting one into a new dimension of sight and sound, much like Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone. With optical bending movement similar to Bridget Riley’s works Blaze Study (1962) and Nartaraja (1993), Edmonds’ acrylic spirographs merry-go-round with confidence.
Similarly electrifying is Déjà Vu (2024), a painting that features a repetitive Oreo-cookie black impasto trace around it’s red velvet cake petals. A cheddar yellow-orange, caramel brown, and jellybean red iris sits firmly in the center. Behind, lemonade yellow and popsicle orange colors spin like house music on a DJ’s turntable. A second reading reveals Edmonds’ exploration of the shapes of seeds and leaves further exploration of shapes of the seed and leaves and how they suggest growth and life.
Exiting this exhibition left me wondering how these works would look if interpreted three-dimensionally, and how the plethora of colors and shapes would feel if expressed through sound, installation and performance. To be sure, Edmonds’ show bears the testimony of an artist who communicates a message much needed on a planet where the slow decline of American currency breeds fear of hyperinflation—where people flock to gold and settler colonialism abroad leaves the footprints of genocide.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
June Edmonds: Meditations of African Resilience
1110 Mateo St.,
Los Angeles, CA 90021
On view through April 14, 2024
June had mastered her technique and the interplay of color, embedding history in each meditative stroke on the canvas. It is a treat to see each new iteration of her practice.
June has mastered her technique and the interplay of color, embedding history in each meditative stroke on the canvas. It is a treat to see each new iteration of her practice.