Grier Edmundson

North / South

MEMPHIS
Native Memphian Grier Edmundson's paintings evolved after returning to Memphis in 2003 having been away for six years. Reacting to his shifted perspective, the paintings he made in the two years following his return reflect his attempt to create a southern identity through a composite of ideals and images. Influenced by the writing of Flannery O'Conner, Jorge Louis Borges and William Faulkner, these intimate paintings are a collection of moments that simultaneously dwell on the subtle beauty of the south and examine its flaws and injustices.

GLASGOW
Writer and curator Francis McKee has called The Glasgow School of Art's critically acclaimed MFA programme, where Grier recently completed his degree, "a mental free state or republic of ideas". Glasgow, like Berlin, is a production city. A magnet for creative practitioners from around the world, it has that critical density of artists which enables a genuinely layered and diverse community to evolve. The vibrant artist-led culture is now complemented by a rapidly growing commercial gallery sector which has emerged from these grassroots spaces.

While continuing his interest in the complicated history of the American South, Grier has used the distance and experiences of Glasgow to expand the focus of his work. His articulately rendered paintings serve as an examination of society through the juxtaposition of appropriated images, carefully selected from diverse source material. The non-definitive narratives that he presents undermine our assumptions of modernist history and create a platform for new interpretations of the images and the histories surrounding them.

Grier Edmundson holds degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Glasgow School of Art. His work has been in numerous exhibitions including Furthermore at Artnews Projects in Berlin, Grier and Luke Fast as F*ck: Tronjan Horse at the Project Room in Glasgow, To Hell with Dixie curated by John Weeden at Groeflin Maag Galarie in Basel , MAX 2005 at the Art Museum at University of Memphis which was curated by David Moos, and Forward/Retreat curated by Sarah Hromack at the Pinkard Gallery in Baltimore . He lives and works in Glasgow.