This exhibition presents a group of previously unrealized installations from one of sculptor Melvin Edwards’ most dynamic bodies of work. In a brief but prolific period between 1969 and 1970, Edwards developed a series of environmentally scaled sculptures using steel from barbed wire. Each work consists of a simple geometric construction that volumetrically subdivides a space. The punctuated lines of this material are pulled across a section of a room, using linearity to create depth and dimension and heightening what the artist describes as the “painfully dynamic and aggressive resistance” of the material. In dialogue with the contemporaneously emerging field of Postminimal art, Edwards’s barbed wire sculptures explore geometry in suspension. Meanwhile, the material’s evocative referentiality—to a social, agricultural, and militaristic history of containment and bondage—ensures these works resist resolution. Four of these installations, three of which recently entered Dia’s permanent collection, will be on view here for the first time. Together, they will interrupt the architectural frame of Dia Beacon, provocatively delineating passageways and obstructing corners.
Melvin Edwards is organized by Alexis Lowry, curator, Dia Art Foundation, with Zuna Maza, curatorial assistant.
Melvin Edwards is made possible by Peter Marino, the David Schwartz Foundation, Inc., and an anonymous donor. Support provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies
Production by Northguild
Cinematography by Chris Rahm
Camera Assistance by Kashka Glowacka
Edited by Devin Pickering and Chris Rahm
Music: Emily A. Sprague, “Woven,” from Hill, Flower, Fog (2020). Courtesy RVNG Intl., by arrangement with Terrorbird Media
Dia Art Foundation Staff
Producers: Katherine Ellis and Dan Wolfe
Copyediting: Kamilah N. Foreman
Rights and Reproductions: Jenn Kane
Curator: Alexis Lowry
Curatorial Assistant: Zuna Maza
Communications Director: Hannah Gompertz
© 2022 Dia Art Foundation
All works by Melvin Edwards © 2022 Melvin Edwards
