Book excerpt: Melvin Edwards (b.1937) is a pioneer in the history of contemporary African-American art and sculpture. Born in Houston, Texas, he began his artistic career at the University of Southern California. The exhibition is the artistœs first solo exhibition in Brazil. It brings together 38 works from the iconic sculpture series by one of the most important American artists of his generation. The exhibited works span more than five decades of his production -from 1963 to 2016- and its starting point coincides with a crucial period of the civil rights movement in the United States.ʺ Page [7]. Edwards uses welds scraps of found metal to create new forms, and the sculpturesœ implicit threat of violence derives in part from the chains, nails, and other tools of which they are constructed. He made this work during and immediately following a residency in Zimbabwe.