SIMON EDWARDS

SIMON EDWARDS Facing the Mountain 11 April - 6 May 2015

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 info@milfordhouse.co.nz

Castle Hill (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

1

Precipice (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

2

Eastern Edge (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

3

Angle of Repose (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

4

Summit Apparition (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

5

Point of Collision (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

6

Uplift (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

7

Splinter (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 900 x 750 x 14 mm

8

Between Two Worlds (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 1800 x 1500 x 14 mm

9

Rise and Fall (2015) oil on aluminium, panel: 1800 x 1500 x 14 mm

10

In Facing the Mountain Simon Edwards challenges our emotions and conventional understandings of how we experience the landscape These alpine landscapes are both familiar and elusive. They are suffused with dim light which has a palpable presence. Painterly effects are intermingled – perspective alters and changes, with Edwards using glazes to retain translucence and clarity at the same time as they instil tone and atmosphere.

Edwards is playing with notions of the sublime and employing elements of modernist abstraction. He delivers these startling alpine landscapes, animated by the vaporous and ephemeral, so that they seem to simultaneously advance and retreat in space.

These are real places (as titles such as Eastern Edge and Castle Hill demonstrate).

While they are paintings deeply informed by drawings undertaken in the field, they are, most especially, studio paintings where painterly effects and the essential qualities of the painted surface commune with the senses and the delineated landscape. Edwards uses suggestion and implication as actively as atmosphere, space and distance.

These are alpine landscapes more felt and perceived than actually seen.

In Between Two Worlds dull air softly lights a watery path we travel to ‘face the mountain,’ apprehend and comprehend it.

In Precipice, Summit Apparition and Angle of Repose Edwards reveals and hides, allows and denies. Broken white lines, silhouetted outlines and shadows, cold volume and ‘pooling’ modulated tone activate the senses. We thus ‘feel’ our way in.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST 1

Castle Hill (2015)

6,500

2

Precipice (2015)

6,500

3

Eastern Edge (2015)

6,500

4

Angle of Repose (2015)

6,500

5

Summit Apparition (2015)

6,500

6

Point of Collision (2015)

6,500

7

Uplift (2015)

6,500

8

Splinter (2015)

6,500

9

Between Two Worlds (2015)

14,500

10

Rise and Fall (2015)

14,500

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

SIMON EDWARDS b. 1975, lives Christchurch

Simon Edwards: The Breadth and Blood of Distant Lands (2013)

“The landscape has been the source of my work…The work places itself somewhere between a modernistic reliance on the essential qualities (of the materials and methods of painting) and an awareness of traditional forms of the landscape. I use this as a departure point, for entering into a process of layering and rubbing back, setting up a dialogue between myself, the medium and the landscape. The work becomes a result of reacting to what is happening on the surface at the time, and building on chance effects that present themselves, contributing to a sense of space, distance and movement.” (1) "Forms revealed as being as vaporous and ephemeral as the air itself and the work a play with the sublime, the atmospheric effects of nature able to reflect and inspire imagination". (2) Edwards’ earlier work clearly showed the influence of 19th century landscape artists like Friedrich and Turner but this influence was mediated by a 20th Century modernist and postmodernist perspective. "Sliding between modernist abstraction and the tempestuous 19th Century Painter Turner, they also felt utterly of their region, recalling two important Cantabrian forebearers, Van der Velden and Sutton." (3) Born in Christchurch, New Zealand 1975. Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts 1997. Finalist in the 1997 Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award. Simon has exhibited regularly since 1998. He lives and works in Christchurch. He is represented in numerous New Zealand collections including the Christchurch Art Gallery.

1. Simon Edwards, Artist’s Statement.

2. Mark Amery, 'Cantabrians Building on the Past', Dominion Post, 2007.

3. Ibid.

Simon Edwards 2015 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

SIMON EDWARDS b. 1975, lives Dunedin EDUCATION 1997

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting), School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2015 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007

2006 2005

2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998

Facing the Mountain, Milford Galleries Dunedin Mountain Pass, Milford Galleries Dunedin Backburn, Chambers241, Christchurch Burn Off, milford galleries Queenstown New Works, Suite Gallery, Wellington Transalpine, CoCA, Christchurch New Works, CoCA, Christchurch Demister, Milford Galleries Dunedin Westpark, milford galleries Auckland New Paintings and Drawings, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Urban Wanderer, CoCA, Christchurch Still, CoCA, Christchurch In the Shadow of the Port Hills, CoCA, Christchurch New Paintings, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington Private Wilderness, milford galleries auckland New Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Field Work, milford galleries auckland Silver Lining, Milford Galleries Dunedin From the Road, Canaday Gallery, CoCA, Christchurch Backward Glance, CoCA, Christchurch Detours, Milford Galleries Dunedin Recent Painting, Chamber Gallery, Rangiora A Second Nature, CoCA, Christchurch New Paintings, Milford Galleries Dunedin New Works, CoCA, Christchurch

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2014

2013

2012

2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006

The Review, milford galleries queenstown It’s Not Dry Yet, Chambers 241, Christchurch The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown Another Country, Chambers 241, Christchurch The Landscape Show, The Vivian, Matakana Small Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Large Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin Works on Paper, milford galleries queenstown Small Works, milford galleries queenstown How to Paint a Landscape, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Shared Lines, Christchurch Sendai Art Exchange, Sendai and Shiogama, Japan Reboot, milford galleries queenstown Christchurch Contingent, WH Milbank Gallery, Whanganui Winter Show, milford galleries queenstown Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown 135 Gloucester Street Studio Exhibition, High Street, Christchurch Masterworks, milford galleries queenstown Summer Show, milford galleries auckland Summer Show, milford galleries queenstown Looking South, Milford Galleries Dunedin Essence, milford galleries auckland Location South, milford galleries queenstown

Simon Edwards 2015 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

2005

2004

2003

2002 2001 2000 1999

1998 1997

The Southern Landscape Dunedin, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown This Earth – Garry Currin, Simon Edwards, Scott McFarlane, milford galleries auckland Seven, Art House, Christchurch Simon Edwards, Chris Pole, Callum Arnold, Chamber Gallery , Rangiora Contemporary Art from Marlborough Collections, Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim Clouded Hills: Gerda Leenards & Simon Edwards, CoCA, Christchurch Grant Whibley, Damien Kurth, Simon Edwards, milford galleries auckland OverView - Is As: Landscape as Metaphor, Milford Galleries Dunedin Simon Edwards and Callum Arnold, CoCA, Christchurch Convergence, Selwyn Gallery, Darfield Art Event, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch Essay in Colour, Morgan Street Gallery, Auckland Art on Tour, Mayoral Touring Exhibition, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch 20/20 Revisited, CoCA, Christchurch Under 25 Exposure, Selwyn Gallery, Darfield Blind Date, CoCA, Christchurch Northern Lights; Simon Edwards & Dennis de Visseraman, CoCA, Christchurch High Street Project Fundraising Show, HSP, Christchurch 3 Canterbury Men, Gallery Sixteen, Auckland Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award, Robert McDougall Art Annex, Christchurch Painting by Numbers, School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch

AWARDS 2013 2006 2005 2002 1998 1997

Finalist, Parkin Drawing Award First Prize in Landscape, Park Lane Art Award, Auckland People’s Choice Award, Anthony Harper Award in Contemporary Art Premier Exhibit, Malvern Art Week Acquisitive Award, Malvern Art Week Finalist Cranleigh Barton Drawing Award

SELECTED COLLECTIONS Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu Carrington College, Dunedin Bupa Care Services, Wellington Numerous private collections in New Zealand, Australia, United States of America & United Kingdom

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2008 2007 2007 2006 2006

Carrick, Chanelle, ‘Subverted portraiture questions roles of redundant men’, Otago Daily Times, April 17, 2008 McNamara, TJ, ‘Compelling Visions of Childhood’, New Zealand Herald, September 6, 2007 Amery, Mark, ‘Cantabrians building on the past’, The Dominion Post, May 8, 2007 Hanton, Jamie, ‘Satisfying Resonance’, The Press, September 26, 2006 Coley, John, ‘Alive with Paint’, The Press, October 18, 2006

Simon Edwards: Conquest (2013)

Simon Edwards 2015 CV P a g e |3

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz