Virtual Roundtable: Dr. Anita Bateman, June Edmonds, Yrneh Gabon, and CCH Pounder in Conversation

June Edmonds (b. 1959, Los Angeles, CA) received her MFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, and a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University. She also attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Edmonds was recently awarded the 2023 MacDowell Spring-Summer Fellowship, Peterborough, NH; and the Ucross Foundation Spring Fellowship, Clearmont, Wyoming, among other prestigious awards, including the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Fine Arts (2022), New York, NY; and the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Art Fellows (2022), Los Angeles, CA. Edmonds has exhibited at The Getty Villa, Malibu, CA; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Mead Art Museum, Amhurst, MA; Davis Museum of Art, Wellesley College, MA; Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA; California African American Museum, Los Angeles; Luckman Fine Art Gallery at Cal State Los Angeles; Watts Tower Art Center, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Angels Gate Art Center, San Pedro, CA; Manhattan Beach Art Center, Manhattan Beach, CA; and Marche de I’art at the Dakar Biennial, Dakar, Senegal. Edmonds has also completed several works of public art with the city of Los Angeles and the Department of Cultural Affairs, including an installation at the MTA Pacific Station in Long Beach, CA.

Edmonds paintings are held in notable collections throughout the United States including the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Mead Art Museum, Amhurst College, Amhurst, MA; Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State University, Muncie, IN; Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA; Embassy of Guatemala, U.S. Department of State; The Shah Garg Collection, New York, NY; Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Collection, San Francisco, CA; The Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami, FL; Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African-American Art, Asbury, NJ; Arthur Lewis Collection, Los Angeles, CA; Rodney M. Miller Collection, New York, NY; Michael Rubel Collection, Los Angeles, CA; David Rogath Collection, Greenwich, CT; and Kelly Williams and Andrew Forsyth Collection, Palm Beach, FL; among others.

Yrneh Gabon (b. 1967, Jamaica) received his MFA from Otis College of Arts and Design in 2017 and BFA from the University of Southern California in 2012. Gabon was awarded a 2023-24 Fulbright Fellowship and is currently in residence in Botswana, in Southern Africa, conducting research into the impact of ecological climate change on local society, the Okavango Delta, and La Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. In 2022, he became the first artist in residence at the Museum of Black Civilisations in Dakar, Senegal. Yrneh Gabon is based in Los Angeles, CA.

Selected solo and group exhibitions include Collective Conversations Matter (2023) at Matter Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born (2022), Maison AfriKin, Miami, Fl; At the Table (2022), Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA; Vernacular A la Monde (2022), Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami, FL; Adornment and Artifacts (2022), Getty Villa, Los Angeles, CA; A Salted Intermission: 14th Edition of the Dakar Biennale 2022, Palais De Justice; I’NDaff # Forger/Out of the Fire, De La Biennale De L’Art African Contemporain; Le Marche’ International Des Arts de Dakar, 14th Biennale De Dakar 2022; The Phoenix Project: Continuing the Dialogue from 1992 (2022), Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Radical Propagations / Propagaciones Radicales (2022), 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA.

Recovery Justice: Being Well (2021), 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA; Suturo Artists and Poems: Los Angeles (2020, online exhibition); Black Lives Matter (2020, online exhibition), El Camino College Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Drive-By-Art / Public Art in This Moment of Social Distancing (2020), WEST of Western, Los Angeles, CA; Mojo Rising (2020), Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery, Cal State LA, Los Angeles, CA; Facing Darkness (2020), 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA; National Gallery of Art Summer Exhibition (2019), National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica; African Civilisations: Continuous Creation of Humanity (2018), Musée des Civilisations Noires, Dakar, Senegal; Memba Mi Tell Yu (2017), Bolsky Otis College of Arts and Design, Los Angeles, CA; Visibly Invisible (2014-15), California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Raíces y Símbolos Escondidos (2014), Foundación Sebastián, Mexico City, Mexico; among others.