As one of America’s foremost sculptors, Melvin Edwards became know for his crafted small-scale welded metal wall reliefs he developed during the 1960s and 70s.Therearenowmorethan200piecesintheseries,madeupof variety of metal objects including hammer heads, scissors, locks, chains and railroad splices. The objects serve to reference the brutish power conjured by instruments used to subjugate African Americans. His sculptures continue to evoke problems of the African diaspora, racism, violence and apartheid.

Edwards has had solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, USA. Several of his works are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others. An exhibition featuring his work from the early 1960s to the present is planned to open at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, USA, in 2015.