Born: Houston, Texas, USA, 1937
Lives and works in New York and New Jersey, USA and Dakar, Senegal
Education
1965 BFA, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Solo Exhibitions (selected)
2024
Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (touring)
2023
B WIRE, BEWARE, ALL WAYS ART, Steel, Paper & Paint, Galerie Buchholz, Berlin, Germany
Lines for the Poet, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
2022
Wire(d) and Chain(ed), Christian-Green Gallery, Austin, Texas
Brighter Days, DeCordova Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts (touring)
Dia Art Foundation, Dia Beacon, New York
2021
Brighter Days, Public Art Fund, City Hall Park, New York (touring)
2020
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Crossroads, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, California; and University of Southern California Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California (touring)
auroras, Museu Nacional da República, Brasilia, Brazil and Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil (touring)
2019
Crossroads, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland (touring)
auroras, São Paulo, Brazil; Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAM), Salvador, Brazil (touring)
Painted Sculpture, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
2018
Lynch Fragments, Museu de arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Festivals, Funerals and New Life, David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University, Rhode Island
2017
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin, Germany
In Oklahoma, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
2016
Haptic, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma
2015
Five Decades, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas; travels to Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio (touring)
2014
Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris, France
Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2012
Alexander Gray Associates, New York
2010
Sculptures 1964–2010, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
2008
Museu Afrobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil
2005
Georgia Southern University, Georgia
CDS Gallery, New York
2002
Dieu Donne, New York
2001
Hunterdon Museum of Art, New Jersey
2000
Corroborations, Works of the 1990s, CDS Gallery, New York
The Prints of A Sculptor, Jersey City Museum, New Jersey (catalogue)
Conversation with Igun, Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, Virginia
Lynch Fragments and Larger Works, Miami University Art Museum, Ohio
1998
Lynch Fragments, Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan
1996
The Way of Fire, CDS Gallery, New York
Lynch Fragments, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
1995
Melvin Edwards Sculpture: A Thirty-Year Retrospective 1963–1993, McNay Art Museum, Texas (touring, catalogue)
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Porter Troupe Gallery, San Diego, California
Parchman Stremmel Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
1994
Melvin Edwards Sculpture: A Thirty-Year Retrospective 1963–1993, Frost Art Museum, Florida; Hood Museum of Art, New Hampshire (touring, catalogue)
CDS Gallery, New York
1993
Melvin Edwards Sculpture: A Thirty-Year Retrospective 1963–1993, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York (touring, catalogue)
Lynch Fragments, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Lynch Fragments, CDS Gallery, New York
1992
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa (catalogue)
The Lynch Fragment Series, Eugene Johnson Gallery of Art, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota (catalogue)
1991
Lynch Fragments: Selected Small Sculptures by Mel Edwards, Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center of African-American Art, Georgia (catalogue)
Project 1: Melvin Edwards: The “Lynch Fragment Series”, Oklahoma City Art Museum on the Fairgrounds, Oklahoma
Sculptures/Drawings, Tomasulo Gallery, New Jersey
1990
Sculpture by Melvin Edwards, Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania
Melvin Edwards Sculpture: Fragments of a Decade 1980–1990, Montclair State College Art Gallery, New Jersey (catalogue)
Melvin Edwards Sculpture, De Luce Gallery Northwest Missouri State University, Montana
Recent Sculpture, CDS Gallery, New York
1989
Sculpture of Melvin Edwards, Korn Gallery, Madison College, New Jersey
Memories Forming the Future: Sculpture of Melvin Edwards, Colgate University, New York
Melvin Edwards Sculpture, Extension Gallery, New Jersey
1986
Mel Edwards Sculpture, Atrium Gallery, Connecticut
1985
Lynch Fragment Series, Robeson Center Gallery, New Jersey
The Sculpture of Mel Edwards, Atrium Gallery, Connecticut
Drawings, Monoprints, and Maquettes by Melvin Edwards, Jersey City Museum, New Jersey
1984
The Sculpture of Melvin Edwards, UNESCO, Paris, France
1983
Drawings for Southern Sunrise, Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina
1982
The Sculpture of Melvin Edwards, Sculpture Center Gallery, New York
1981
Sculpture by Mel Edwards, New Jersey State Museum, New Jersey
1980
Recent Sculpture, Fragments, and Larger Works, 55 Mercer Gallery, New York
Sculpture by Mel Edwards, Lusaka, Zambia American Cultural Center, Kenya, Africa
Melvin Edwards, YM-YMHA Greene Lane, Union, New Jersey
1979
Johnson Atelier, Trenton, New Jersey
1978
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, New York
1974
Lines, Carpenter Gallery, New Hampshire
1972
Wright State University, Ohio
1970
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1969
Andrew Dickinson White Museum of Art, New York
1968
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Barnsdall Art Center, Los Angeles, California
1965
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Group Exhibitions (selected)
2023
Sensibilities, Maximillian William, London, England
2022
Black Abstractionists: From Then ‘Til Now, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, Texas
Revisiting 5+1, Zuccaire Gallery, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
Juan Friancisco Elso: Por América, El Museo del Barrio, New York
Rethinking Monuments: American Sculpture in its Time, 1850-2000, Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, Saginaw, Michigan
A Sight of Struggle: Making Meaning of Anti-Black Violence in American Art and Visual Culture’ Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama
New York: 1962-1964, The Jewish Museum, New York
Future Bodies from a Recent Past: Sculpture, Technology, and the Body since the 1950s, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany (catalogue)
A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (catalogue)
Epistrophy, Pace Gallery, New York
This Tender, Fragile Thing, The School, Jack Shainman Gallery, Kinderhook, New York
2021
Sarah Maldoror: Tricontinental Cinema, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
C. Ludens Ringnes Sculpture Exhibition, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts
Nasher Mixtape, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas
Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, New Museum, New York (catalogue)
African American Art in the 20th Century, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York (touring)
2020
Future Food. Food for the World of Tomorrow, Deutsches Hygiene–Museum, Dresden, Germany
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
Editorial: An Exhibition in Words, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome, Italy (catalogue)
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; de Young Museum, San Francisco, California (touring)
African American Art in the 20th Century, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania (touring)
2019
Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991–2011, MoMA PS1, New York
Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
Walking Through Walls, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
LA Blacksmith, California African American Museum, California
African American Art in the 20th Century, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; Dubuque Museum of Art in Dubuque, Iowa; Cornell Fine Arts Museum in Winter Park, Florida (touring)
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington DC and Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
Where the Oceans Meet, Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, The Broad, Los Angeles, California
The Sensation of Space, The Warehouse, Dallas, Texas
Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina and Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (touring)
Serpentine Fire, Quotidian Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2018
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn
A Gathering: Sculpture from the Collection, Neuberger Museum, Purchase College, State University of New York, New York
Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant: Trembling Thinking, Americas Society, New York
On Edge, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Paper/Print: American Hand Papermaking, 1960s to Today, International Print Center, New York
Art of Protest, Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
Give Up the Ghost, Baltic Triennial 13, Vilnius, Lithuania
Working Metal in 20th-Century Sculpture, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, California
O Triângulo Atlântico, 11ª Bienal do Mercosul, Museu de Arte do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
A Page from my Intimate Journal (Part I), Gordon Robichaux, New York
Third Space/shifting conversations about contemporary art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
The Long Run, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Sidelined, Galerie LeLong, New York
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
2017
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London, England
20/20, The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Say it Loud: Art, History, Rebellion, The Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit
AfroFantastic: Black Imagination and Agency in the American Experience, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Florid
Third Space /Shifting Conversations about Contemporary Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama
Space Force Construction, V-A-C Foundation with the Art Institute of Chicago, Palazzo delle Zattere, Venice, Italy
Black Feast, Simon Lee Gallery, New York
Picturing Mississippi, 1817-2017: Land of Plenty, Pain, and Promise, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi
We Are Here, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA An An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940-2017, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Origins: The Historical Legacy of Visual Art, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
CONDO: Collaborative Exhibition across 15 London Galleries, Emalin, London, England
2016
Not New Now, Marrakech Biennale, Morocco
The Lasting Concept, curated by Rob Halverson, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland
Postwar: Art between the Pacific and the Atlantic 1945 - 1965, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
Exposition d'artistes Caraibeens et des Amériques, Institut du Tout-Monde, Paris, France
Haptic, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
2015
Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England (catalogue)
Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England
56th International Art Exhibition - All the World's Futures, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Black SoCal: Art in Practice in an Evolving Landscape, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
A Constellation, The Studio Museum, Harlem, New York
Not New Now, Marrakech Biennale, Marrakech, Morocco
Äppärät, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas
Necessary Force: Art in the Police State, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy
Bold Abstractions: Selections from the Collection, 1966–1976, Dallas Museum of Art, TX New Acquisitions, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
METAL: Sculpture in America,1945 to 1970, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York
Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas (touring)
2014
Beyond the Spectrum: Abstraction in African American Art, 1950-1975, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York African-American Artists and Abstraction, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba
Viewpoints: 20 Years of Adderley, Bakalar and Paine Galleries, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, Massachusetts
Glenn Ligon: Encounters and Collisions, Tate Liverpool, United Kingdom
Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, curated by Teresa A. Carbone and Kellie Jones, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire
2013
African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center, Taft Museum of Art, Ohio
Assembly Required: Selections from the Permanent Collection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Blues for Smoke, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (touring)
2012
Blues for Smoke, Museum of Contemporary Art, California (touring)
Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980, MoMA PS1, New York
Paper Space: Drawings by Sculptors, Inman Gallery, Texas
African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell Center, David C. Driskell Center, Maryland
Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Paintings and Sculpture 1945-1970, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
Magical Visions: Ten Contemporary African American Artists, Mechanical Hall Gallery, Delaware
2011
Paper Trails: Selected Works from the Collection, 1934–2001, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Inside & Out: Melvin Edwards and Peter Saul, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Georgia
Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Paintings and Sculpture 1945-1970, J. Paul Getty Center, California
Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles, 1960–1980, Hammer Museum, California
Sculpted, Etched and Cut: Metal Works from the Permanent Collection, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
2010
Abstract Relations, David C. Driskell Center, Maryland
Art in Embassies Exhibition, U.S. Embassy Residence, Warsaw, Poland
Art Collection of the United States Embassy, U.S. Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
What Matters, Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
Americanana, Hunter College, New York
2007
Valencia Biennial, Valencia, Spain
2008
Melvin Edwards, Museu Afrobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil
2006
Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
L.A. Object and David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, New York
2005
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Sculpture Project, Bristol-Myers Squibb Park, New Jersey
Something to Look Forward To, Heckscher Museum, New York (touring)
Reaction (1945-1963), Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, California
African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Utah
2004
Something to Look Forward To, The Phillips Museum of Art, Pennsylvania (touring)
How Sculptors See, Worcester Art Museum, Massachussets
African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio (touring)
2003
African American Masters: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (touring)
Watts: Art & Social Change in Los Angeles, 1965-2002, Haggerty Museum of Art, Wisconsin
2001
Expanding on a Legacy: American Art From the Montclair Art Museum, UBS Paine Webber Art Gallery, New York
American Identities: A New Look, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Material and Matter, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
2000
Welded Sculpture of the Twentieth Century, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York
Public Voices, Private Visions: African American Art 2000, Rockland Center for the Arts, New York
Project Row Houses, Houston, Texas
1999
26 Sculptors in Their Environments, Rockland Center for the Arts, New York
New Jersey Fine Arts Annual, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
1998
Histories (Re)membered, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
African American Art from the New Jersey State Museum Collection, New Jersey State Museum, New Jersey
Stages of Creation: Public Sculpture by National Academicians, National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York
Sculpture From New Jersey, New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts, New Jersey
Sculpture: New Jersey, Ramapo College Art Gallery, New Jersey
Twentieth Century American Sculpture at the White House, The White House, Washington DC
Tragic Wake: The Legacy of Slavery and the African Diaspora in Contemporary American Art, Spirit Square Center for Arts and Education, North Carolina
1997
CDS Gallery, New York
Sculpture Biennial, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York
1996
Texas Modern and Post-Modern, Museum of Fine Arts, Texas
1995
Editions, Skoto Gallery, New York
Melvin Edwards, Richard Hunt, Lester Johnson, Stephen Procuniar Editions 1974–1991, Pharos Gallery, New York
The Listening Sky, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Civil Rights Now, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, North Carolina
The Iguana Hat: The Artist’s Quest for Symbols of the Self, SciosNova, Florida
1994
Dream Singers, Story Tellers: An African-American Presence New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey (touring, catalogue)
Melvin Edwards, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, New Jersey
25th Anniversary Exhibition, Cinque Gallery, New York
Sources, Art Gallery, Art-Sociology Building, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
1993
The Mask in Contemporary Art, Sewall Art Gallery, Texas
New Jersey Arts Annual, The Newark Museum, New Jersey
Recollections/Resistances/Reconstruction, Hillwood Art Gallery, New York
Fujisankei Biennial, Utsukushi-Ga-Hara Museum, Nagano, Japan
Dream Singers, Story Tellers: An African-American Presence, Tokushima Modern Art Museum; Otani Memorial Art Museum, Japan (touring, catalogue)
1992
Present Tense, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery, Wisconsin (catalogue)
The Expanding Circle: A Selection of African-American Art, The Gallery at Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey (catalogue)
The Order of Things: Toward a Politic of Still Life, Real Art Ways at Widener Gallery, Connecticut (catalogue)
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Gifted Visions: African American Artists, Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut (catalogue)
Bridges and Boundaries: African-Americans and American Jews, The Jewish Museum, New York
Three Voices: Thirty Years of Afro-American Expression, Shircliff Gallery of Art, Indiana
In Plural America: Contemporary Journeys Voices and Identities, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York
Warriors: The Guerreros, Atrium Gallery, Connecticut (catalogue)
Dream Singers, Story Tellers: An African-American Presence, Fukui Fine Arts Museum, Japan (touring, catalogue)
Ante America, curated by Gerardo Mosquera, Rachel Weiss, and Carolina Ponce de León, Biblioteca Luis-Ángel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela; Queens Museum of Art, New York; Centro Cultural de la Raza, San Diego, CA; Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; Spencer Museum, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS; Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica (catalogue)
1991
Sculpture: Seven Artists of the 90’s, CDS Gallery, New York
Espiritu & Materia; Estetica Alternativa Norteamericana, Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela (catalogue)
Discarded, The Emerson Gallery, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, New York (catalogue)
The Harlem Renaissance Remembered, Brownson Art Gallery, New York (catalogue)
Spirit Calls, Artworks Gallery, Connecticut
Spiritual Cargo: Shamanistic Manifestations, Atrium Gallery, Connecticut
Artists of Conscience: 16 Years of Social and Political Commentary, Alternative Museum, New York
African American Works on Paper from the Cochran Collection, New Visions Gallery, Georgia
Bertoia, Buchanan, Edwards, Mitchel: Sculpture Update, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina (catalogue)
1990
The Blues Esthetic: Black Culture and Modernism, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Formulation and Representation: Recent Abstract Sculpture, Bertha and Karl Luebsdorf (catalogue)
Steelworks, USX Tower, Pennsylvania
CDiverse Representations 1990, The Morris Museum, New Jeresey
The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art; The New Museum of Contemporary Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (catalogue)
Inaugural Exhibition, Abington Art Center Sculpture Garden, Pennsylvania (catalogue)
A Force of Repetition, New Jersey State Museum, New Jersey (catalogue)
New History: Sculptural Installations, Atlanta College Art Gallery, Georgia
Legacies: African American Artists, New Jersey Center for Visual Art, New Jersey
Painted Forms: Recent Metal Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York (catalogue)
Two Generations of Sculptors, The Gallery at Bristol–Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey
1989
Bronze and Steel: Sculpture by Melvin Edwards and Robert T. Cooke, Pyramid Gallery, New York
Introspective: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, California African American Museum, California
Traditions and Transformations: Contemporary Afro-American Sculpture, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (catalogue)
Afro American Abstractions in Printmaking, California African American Museum California
The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism, Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC
Melvin Edwards, Newton Art Center, Massachusetts
1988
Committed to Print, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Sculpture: Inside, Outside, Walker Art Center, Minnesota
Affinities: Idioms/Aesthetics/Intents, Jamaica Art Center, Queens, New York (catalogue)
Traces of History: Art of Afro-America, Robeson Gallery, New Jersey
The Law & Order Show, Gladstone Gallery, New York
Outside In, New York Cultural Center, New York
Making The Main Stream, Melvin Gallery, Florida
Public Art, California African American Museum, New York
1987
The Law & Order Show, Gladstone Gallery, New York
The Afro-American Artist in the Age of Cultural Pluralism, The Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
Outside In, New York Cultural Center, New York
Making the Mainstream, SVC Fine Arts Gallery, Florida
Public Art, The Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles, California
1986
Black Visions, City Hall, New York
Liberty and Justice, Alternative Museum, New York
Irons in the Fire, Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza, New York
Contemporary Sculpture Selection, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Inaugural, Socrates Sculpture Park, New York
1985
Traditions and Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade, 1963–1973, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1984
Since the Harlem Renaissance, Center Gallery, Pennsylvania
Art: For and Against, Thorpe Intermedia Gallery, New York
Celebration: Eight Afro-American Artists Selected by Romare Bearden, Louis Abrons Arts of Living Center, Henry Street Settlement, New York(catalogue)
Contra-Apartheid, UNESCO, Paris, France
East-West: Contemporary American Art, California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles, California
Artists in Celebration of Black History Month, Trenton State College Art Gallery, New Jersey
Sculpture, Gallery of Murphy Fine Arts Center, Maryland
Sticks and Stones: Modern and Post-Modern Sculpture, Kenkeleba House, New York (catalogue)
Sculpture from Rutgers, Robeson Center Gallery, New Jersey
New Jersey Arts Inclusion Program 1978-84, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey
Melvin Edwards, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, New York
3 Artists in Celebration of Black History Month, Trenton State College Art Gallery, New Jersey
1983
Var for New York, Futura Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
The War Show, University Art Gallery, New York
5 Sculptors, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
Art in Public, Chicago Sculptural Society, Illinois
Celebrating Contemporary American Black Artists, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, New York
4 Sculptors, Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York
Young Talent Awards 1963–83, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Environmental Sculpture, Chicago Sculptural Center, Illinois
1982
Mayor Byrnes’ Mile of Sculpture, Navy Pier, Illinois
The 4 Directions, Gallery of the American Indian Community House, New York
Sacred Artifacts: Common Objects of Devotion, Alternative Museum, New York
Ritual and Myth: A Survey of African American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (catalogue)
Works on Paper, Woodson Regional Library, Illinois
Black Artists: Recent Attitudes II, California State University, California
Visual Politics, Alternative Museum, New York
Afro-American Abstraction, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1981
Mel Edwards and Greg Edwards: Sculpture and Works on Paper, University Art Gallery, New York
Outdoor Sculpture at the Aquarium, Niagara Falls, New York
Cinque Gallery, New York
Focus Southern Africa: Details of the Struggle, Countee Cullen Library, New York
Melvin Edwards, Westbeth Gallery, New York
1980
YW-YMHA, Green Lane, Union, New Jersey
Sculpture Today: Tradition and Non-Traditional, The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, Maryland (catalogue)
Afro-American Abstraction, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, California
1979
3 Sculptors, The Bronx Museum of Arts, New York
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1977
Florida International University, Florida
Henry O. Tanner Gallery, New York
Drawn and Matched, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Environmental Sculpture, Robert Moses Plaza, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, New York (catalogue)
The Concept as Art, Just Above Midtown Gallery, New York
Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture: FESTAC ’77, Lagos, Nigeria
Fisher Gallery, California
1976
Resonance: Williams/Edwards/Gilliam, Morgan State University, Maryland
1975
76 Jefferson, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Sculpture Invitational, Gallery Ariadne, New York
Cinque Gallery, New York
1974
Gilliam / Edwards / Williams: Extensions, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Connecticut (catalogue)
Carpenter Gallery, New Hampshire
1973
Arnot Art Museum, New York
Sculpture Three: New York Artists on Tour, World Trade Center, New York
1972
Edwards, Gilliam, Williams, Wabash Transit Gallery, Illinois
New York Artists at Storm King, Storm King Art Center, New York
1971
Artist as Advocate, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut
Contemporary Black Artists in America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
1970
Paperworks, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The William Benton Museum of Art, Connecticut
Dimensions of Black Art, La Jolla Museum of Art, California
Rental Gallery, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Whitney Annual – Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
1969
California Crafts Survey, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, California
Five + 1, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York; Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (catalogue)
X to the 4th Power, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (catalogue)
1968
New Voices, American Greeting Gallery, Pan Am Building, New York
Thirty Contemporary Black Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota (catalogue)
1967
San Fernando Valley State College, California
Esther Bear Gallery, California
1966
Esther Bear Gallery, California
The Negro in American Art, University of California, California
1965
Esther Bear Gallery, California
Richard Grey Gallery, Illinois
Five Younger Los Angeles Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California (catalogue)
1962
Annual, La Jolla Museum of Art, California
1960
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Catalogues and Publications (selected)
2022
Future Bodies from a Recent Past: Sculpture, Technology, and the Body since the 1950s, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany
A Site of Struggle: American Art against Anti-Black Violence, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
2021
Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, New Museum, New York
2020
Editorial: An Exhibition in Words, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome, Italy
25 Years, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2019
Melvin Edwards: Painted Sculpture, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Melvin Edwards: Lynch Fragments, Museo de Arte São Paulo, Brazil
2017
Melvin Edwards: In Oklahoma, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Third Space /Shifting Conversations About Contemporary Art, Al-Khudhairi, Wassan, ed., Birmingham Museum of Art
2015
Melvin Edwards: Five Decades, Nasher Sculpture Center, Texas
20 Years, essays by Stephen Friedman and Sarah Thornton, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, England
2014
Melvin Edwards, Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, curated by Teresa A. Carbone and Kellie Jones, Brooklyn Museum and The Monacelli Press, New York
2012
Magical Visions: Ten Contemporary African American Artists, Newark, Mechanical Hall Gallery, University of Delaware, Delaware
2004
Wake Up Our Souls: A Celebration of Black American Artists, ed. Tonya Bolden, Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York
2000
Melvin Edwards: The Prints of a Sculptor, Jersey City Museum, New Jersey
1993
Melvin Edwards Sculpture: A Thirty-Year Retrospective, The Neuberger Museum of Art, New Jersey
Ante America, Biblioteca Luis-Ángel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia
1992
The Expanding Circle: A Selection of African American Art, The Gallery at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey
Gifted Visions: African American Artists, Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut
In Plural America: Contemporary Journeys, Voices and Identities, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York
Melvin Edwards, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Mel Edwards: “The Lynch Fragment Series”, Eugene Johnson Gallery of Art, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota
Present Tense, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery
Dream Singers, Story Tellers: An African American Presence, New Jersey State Museum, New Jersey
The Order of Things: Toward a Politic of Still Life, Widener Gallery at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
1991
Discarded, The Emerson Gallery, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack, New York
Espiritu & Materia: Estética Alternativa Norteamericana, Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela
Bertoia, Buchanan, Edwards, Mitchel: Sculpture Update, Diggs Gallery, Winston-Salem University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Fragments: Selected Small Sculpture by Mel Edwards, Hammonds House Galleries and Resource Center of African-American Art, Atlanta, Georgia
The Harlem Renaissance Remembered, Brownson Art Gallery, New York
1990
The Inaugural Exhibition, Abington Art Center, Jenkintown, Pennysylvnia
Formulation and Representation: Recent Abstract Sculpture, The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery, Hunter College, New York
A Force of Repetition, The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey
Painted Forms: Recent Metal Sculpture, Whitney Museum of Art at Phillip Morris, New York
Melvin Edwards Sculpture: Fragments of a Decade: 1980–1990, Montclair State College Art Gallery, New Jersesy
The Decade Show: Frameworks of Identity in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art; The New Museum of Contemporary Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Two Generations of Sculptors, The Gallery at Bristol–Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey
1989
Bronze and Steel: Sculpture by Melvin Edwards and Robert T. Cooke, Pyramid Gallery, New York
Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, Afro-American Museum Foundation, Los Angeles, California
Traditions and Transformations: Contemporary Afro-American Sculpture, essay by George Nelson Preston, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
1988
Affinities: Idioms/Aesthetics/Intents, Jamaica Art Center, Queens, New York
1984
Sticks and Stones: Modern and Post-Modern Sculpture, Kenkeleba House, New York
Celebration: Eight Afro-American Artists Selected by Romare Bearden, Henry Street Settlement Urban Life Center, New York
1982
Ritual and Myth: A Survey of African American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1980
Sculpture Today: Traditional and Non-Traditional, University of Maryland, Maryland
1978
Contextures, Just Above Midtown, New York
Melvin Edwards: Sculptor, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1977
Environmental Sculpture, Fordham University, New York
1974
Gilliam / Edwards / Williams: Extensions, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum, Connecticut
1973
Photographers, Sculptors, Painters, Printmakers 1972–73, Visual Artists selected for CAPS award, Harlem Double Circles
1971
Contemporary Black Artists in America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1970
Artist as Advocate, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Melvin Edwards: Works, statement by William T. Williams, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Whitney Annual – Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1969
Five + 1, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
X to the Fourth Power, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1968
Thirty Contemporary Black Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis
1965
Five Younger Los Angeles Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Grants and Awards
2020
United States Artists Fellowship, Chicago
2014
Honorary Doctorate, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston
2006
Rockefeller Foundation Research Award for Work on Sculpture and Architecture
2000
Papermaking Fellowship, Dieu Donne
1998
Grant for Artist Residency for Inauguration of Print Workshop for Goree Institute, Senegal
VanDer Zee Artist Award
1997
Phillis Weatley Award for Life’s Work in Sculpture
1995
Artist Award, Studio Museum in Harlem
National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1994
Joan Mitchel Foundation Award
1993
Historic Hudson Valley “African American Heritage Award” for Art
The Fujisankei Biennale Grand Prize, The Utsukushi-ga-hara Open-Air Museum
1989
Fulbright Fellowship to Zimbabwe
1985
New Jersey State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant
1984
National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist’s Fellowship
1975
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award
1973
New York State Council on the Arts Creative Artists Public Service Fellowship
1971
National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship
1969
Cassandra Foundation Award
Santa Barbara Art Association Small Sculpture Award
1967
Long Beach Museum of Art Award
1965
Los Angeles Contemporary Art Council Award
1964
John Hay Whitney Fellowship
1958
Scholarship to Los Angeles County Art Institute
Public Sculptures (selected)
2021
Searching for the Word, Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts
2012
Column of Memory, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
2008
Transcendence, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania
2003
Transformations in the Light, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
1993
Safe Journey, Department of Motor Vehicles, Eatontown, New Jersey
1991
Passage, Kingsborough Community College, Brooklyn, New York
Tomorrow’s Wind, Thomas Jefferson Park, New York
1990
Asafokra, The Utsukushi-Ga-Hara Open-Air Museum, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
1989
Confirmation, Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building, Jamaica Queens, New York
1987
Education Is an Open Book, Livingston College of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
1986
Gate of Ogun, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York
Along the Way, Peat, Marwick, and Mitchell, Montvale, New Jersey
1985
Holder of the Light, Lafayette Gardens, Jersey City, New Jersey
1983
Southern Sunrise, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
1982
Out of the Struggles of the Past to a Brilliant Future, Mount Vernon Plaza, Columbus, Ohio
1970
Double Circles, Bethune Towers, New York
1969
Homage to My Father and the Spirit, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
1967
Homage to Billie Holiday and the Young Ones of Soweto, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland
Public Collections
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, California
Long Beach Museum of Art, California
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade, California
Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Connecticut
Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Florida
Center for the Arts, Florida
Miami University, Florida
The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
The Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
James E. Lewis Museum of Art, Maryland
University of Maryland, Maryland
Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts
Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan
Mott-Warsh Collection, Michigan
Lafayette Gardens, New Jersey
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
New Jersey State Museum, New Jersey
Newark Museum, New Jersey
Peat, Marwick, and Mitchell, Montvale, New Jersey
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Bethune Towers, New York
Bronx Museum of Art, New York
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, New York
Joseph P. Addabbo Federal Building, New York
Kingsborough Community College, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Academy Museum, New York
Neuberger Museum of Art, New York
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Thomas Jefferson Park, New York
The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Mount Vernon Plaza, Ohio
Lafayette College, Pennsylvania
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas
rennie museum, Vancouver, Canada
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia
University of Virginia, Virginia
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC
Tate, London, England
United States Embassy, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Museo de Artes Visualez Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela