Melvin Edwards Exhibition Opens at MAM-BA as Part of Black Consciousness Month

A solo exhibition of American sculptor Melvin Edwards opens at the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia (MAM-BA) on November 8. This presentation marks the third stop for the show, which was originally created and presented at the independent São Paulo space auroras before traveling to the Museu da República in Rio de Janeiro. The initiative is part of the HuMAMnamente Negro project, celebrating Brazil's Black Consciousness Month. The exhibition is a collaboration between auroras and the Bahian institution, with support from Galeria Almeida e Dale. During his time in Brazil to install the auroras show, the 81-year-old artist experienced a creative surge, producing 16 sculptures and installations along with 12 watercolors painted on a supposed day off. His abstract works, composed of chains, iron tools, barbed wire, and steel pieces, often evoke themes of segregation, racial violence, and slavery, though Edwards resists direct political labeling. In 1970, he became the first African American artist to have a solo show at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art. His relationship with Brazil dates to 1986, and his work 'Palmares' was recently incorporated into the MASP collection. The auroras space, founded in 2016 by Ricardo Kugelmas in a modernist house, operates without sponsorships and is open primarily on Saturdays.