the Struggles of the Past to a Brilliant Future (1982, Mt Vernon Plaza, Columbus, Ohio), and Breaking of the Chains (1995, San Diego, California). Exhibitions Edwards has participated in a large number of solo shows in the United States and internationally. His solo shows include Melvin Edwards (1965), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; Melvin Edwards: Sculptor (1978), Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Sculpture of Melvin Edwards, SculptureCenter, New York; Mel Edwards: Lynch Fragment Series (1985), Robeson Gallery, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Melvin Edwards (2022), Dia Beacon, Beacon, New York. A 30-year retrospective of his sculpture was held in 1993 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, and a 50-year retrospective titled Melvin Edwards: Five Decades was held in 2015 at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas. He has also participated in many group exhibitions, including the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), Havana Biennial (2019), and Afro-Atlantic Histories (2018, 2021–2022). Personal life He was married in 1960 to Karen Hamre, together they had three children. In 1969, the couple separated, Hamre and the children stayed in Los Angeles while Edwards had already moved to New York City. In 1976, Edwards married the poet Jayne Cortez. Cortez and Edwards worked together: she wrote a series of poems to accompany her husband's work Lynch Fragments, and he illustrated her book Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares (1969). His art studios are located in upstate New York and in Plainfield, New Jersey, and he often travels to Dakar, Senegal. Awards and honors 1975 – awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. 1984 – grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). 1988 – Fulbright Fellowship to Zimbabwe from 1988–1989. 1992 – elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate, and became a full Academician in 1994. 2000 – Lab Grant Artist Residency Program, Dieu Donné, Brooklyn, New York He received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in 2014. He is the subject of the 2016 documentary film by Lydie Diakhaté, entitled Some Bright Morning: The Art of Melvin Edwards. Notable works in public collections August the Squared Fire (1965), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The Lifted X (1965), Museum of Modern Art, New York The Fourth Circle (1966), Los Angeles County Museum of Art Curtain (for William and Peter) (1969), Tate, London Pyramid Up and Pyramid Down