Melvin Edwards: The Sculptor of Resistance
‘Melvin Edwards: The Sculptor of Resistance’ is a touring solo exhibition which opened at Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil in November 2020. The show features over thirty works and revisits significant moments within the African-American artist's expansive career. The exhibition was first conceived at Auroras, São Paulo in 2019 and features metal, wire and steel works newly made in São Paulo together with a group of Edward’s renowned ‘Lynch Fragments’ from the collection of Museu Afro Brasil.
Spanning sixty-years' of Edwards' practice, the works on display explore African-American history and themes relating to slavery and physical labour. Incorporating everyday objects with violent as well as creative associations, such as chains, axe blades, scissors, bolts, gears and hammers, Edwards' sculptures evoke both resistance and liberation. The exhibition also contains a tribute to the artist's late wife, the poet Jayne Cortez, with the inclusion of a poem and tracks from the album ‘Jayne Cortez - Everywhere Drums’, 1990.
The exhibition travels to the following institutions: Auroras, São Paulo, Brazil; Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAM), Salvador, Brazil; Museu Nacional da República, Brasilia and Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil via Alexander Gray.
