This body of work began at an isolated artist residency in January 2020 in response to a recent personal crisis. It soon evolved to address the global crisis in which we all found ourselves. When the work began, I had no WiFi, bad weather, and a dozen sheets of black Arches Cover... before long, I had plenty of paper, just no stable place to live or paint. The paintings continued, but without a dedicated studio space - made on coffee tables, in basements, at friends’ homes... This experience of “Couch Surfing the Apocalypse” brought significant adjustments to my practice, and a new sense of urgency to my work. Dark matter is the single largest volume of anything in the universe. We can see that it is there because of its effect on other objects and energies - yet we have no clear, collective idea as to exactly what it actually is. This knowledge that something is “out there” without knowing “what” that thing is, seems to encapsulate much of the human experience - a testament to the fact that Knowledge and Understanding may not be entirely the same.

Physicist and poet Agnes Vojta (with whom I’ve collaborated before) has written poems after several of these paintings. A number are included in this exhibition.

- Greg Edmondson March, 2022

The Smalter Gallery is an art gallery on West 39th Street in Kansas City that is a home for both established and emerging artists.