Mel Edwards and Curlee Raven Holton: Printmaking, Process, and Legacy

Join internationally acclaimed sculptor Melvin Edwards in conversation with master printmaker Curlee Raven Holton for an in-depth discussion on the role of printmaking in Edwards’ celebrated career.

This special program will explore Edwards’ journey as an artist, his collaborations with leading print studios, and the influence of key printmakers throughout his practice. Together, they’ll reflect on how printmaking has expanded Edwards’ visual language and affected his career as a pioneering artist.

A rare opportunity to hear from two leading voices in the field, this conversation highlights the lasting impact of printmaking on contemporary art and cultural legacy.

“The renowned sculptor Mel Edwards, who I have been honored to work with, believed that when observing or viewing the practice and work of other artists we learn from them. Our practice should be the embodiment of our talent, skills, passions and vision as a way of communicating with our fellow humans the questions and answers about our existence and the world we live in. The collaborative process creates a shared space, a neutral space, where the pot could be stirred by more than one cook, so to speak.” -- Curlee Raven Holton

For over 50 years, Mel Edwards has created public art for communities all around the world. His work reimagines monumental civic sculpture by uniting abstract forms with personal symbols to address issues of race, labor, and the African Diaspora. Each of Edwards’ work incorporates some form of chain—a signature motif for the artist that have functioned as “welded rope” to pull or hoist, but their interconnected links also convey metaphorical significance. They can represent bonds that constrain or unite us, while broken fragments might suggest liberation or loss. His metal works also have resonance to historical associations of metal forms as tools of slavery and violence. His work has been located at the site of the African Burial Ground, a colonial-era cemetery for enslaved and freed individuals of African descent. More recently his work has been located at a geographic center of Black Lives Matter protests. Brighter Days, a title chosen by the artist for this body of work, is a sixth-large scale work commissioned in 2020 and affirms his optimistic view of our shared future. Tracing the long arc of Edwards’ career, these works of art encourage us to remain mindful of the past as we cherish the social linkages that are more important than ever.

Curlee Raven Holton was born in Dekalb, Mississippi in1951. He is a printmaker and painter whose work has been exhibited in more than fifty one-person shows, and one hundred group shows. His exhibitions have included prestigious national and international venues like Egypt’s 7th International Biennale, Taller de arts Plasticas Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Holton’s work is in many private and public collections including: the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Allentown Art Museum, the Discovery Museum of Art and Science in Bridgeport, Connecticut; the West Virginia Governor’s Mansion; the Foundation of Culture Rodolfo Morales in Oaxaca, Mexico; Yale University Art Gallery; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Cornell University Rare Books Collection, The Library of Congress; Boise Art Museum, Philadelphia Art Museum, U.S. Embassy, Costa Rica, Federal Reserve of Washington DC., and The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Holton’s work has been featured and written about in more than fifty publications. As part of his research and study as an artist-scholar, he has lectured and presented demonstrations throughout the United States and abroad in Mexico, the West Indies, Japan, England and Costa Rica. Holton has been an artist in residence at museums, colleges, and universities. He has presented over hundred public lectures on the subjects of his own work, African American art, and contemporary printmaking. He has written numerous articles and essays on art and artists that have been published in catalogues and journals.