Melvin Edwards: Crossroads

In a remarkable exhibition in which the subject is Africa, one of America's leading abstract sculptors Melvin Edwards' object is America. In Edwards' sculptures—metal objects of twisting, abstract assemblages and illustrations—lives a profound presence of African influence. The artist's roots as the great-great-great grandson of a west African blacksmith live in these works, not merely as influence, but as a pre-existing impulse and entity, which is explored in this exhibition. The connections between Africans and African Americans come alive in Edwards art in an interaction that lays bare something that is fundamental to the American identity, though diminished in history's cultivation of it. 

Melvin Edwards: Crossroads will be on display at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art until July 5, 2020. ogdenmuseum.org.