Artist Melvin Edwards (b. 1937) uses existing objects—chains, shovels, hooks—in small, fierce sculptures that respond to racial violence in the United States. Edwards will be in conversation with Geof Oppenheimer, Sculptor and Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Visual Arts, and Emily Lynn Osborn, Associate Professor of African History, African Studies, and the College at the University of Chicago.

Examples of Edwards's ongoing series Lynch Fragments and the two-part floor work A Conversation with Norman Lewis (1970) are featured in the Smart Museum’s exhibition Solidary & Solitary, through May 19.

FREE. Space may be limited, please register in advance. 

Photo: Melvin Edwards, Central Ave. LA, 1991, Welded steel. The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection.