Boston Flora

Tag: University of Southern California

  • Through Sunday, April 30 – Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days

    Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days showcases six monumental, abstract sculptures by the acclaimed contemporary African American artist Melvin Edwards (b. 1937). This traveling exhibition, first organized by the New York City based nonprofit Public Art Fund for City Hall Park in 2021 constitutes Edwards’ first thematic survey of outdoor sculptures and deCordova’s first outdoor solo exhibition in many years. Brighter Days, a title chosen by the artist, brings forth conversations on Black history and identity, and evokes Edwards’ optimistic view of our shared future.

    Brighter Days offers a focused look at Edwards’ accomplishments in large-scale sculpture and public art through five sculptures from 1970 to 1996, and a sixth commissioned in 2020 for Brighter Days. These six works elaborate on his examination of race, labor, and the African Diaspora, and feature his signature use of abstract, representational icons like chains. To the artist, the chain possesses numerous meanings, ranging from its function as a “welded rope” for pulling, its use for bondage and constraints, and its more metaphorical association to linkage and connectivity. By fragmenting and breaking the links, Edwards creates nuanced interpretations of the chain, including its allusions to slavery and violence, as well as liberation and connection. All at once, Brighter Days encourages mindfulness of the past, while inspiring resiliency, overcoming, and connection.

    A pioneer of abstract sculpture, Houston-born Melvin Edwards began his career in the 1960s after studying at the University of Southern California. Edwards gained notoriety from his first solo exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1965, where he uniquely blurred abstraction and symbolism to comment on social justice issues – an approach distinct from his Minimalist and Post-Modernist contemporaries. At this time, he initiated his renowned, ongoing body of work Lynch Fragments, a sculpture series investigating themes of racial violence, anti-war protest, and Edwards’ connections to Africa. Shortly thereafter, he exhibited at the Studio Museum of Harlem in 1969, and by 1970, became the first African American sculptor with a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Edwards has produced over 20 public works throughout his career for universities, public housing projects, and museums. Now living and working across multiple studios in two states and Senegal, Melvin Edwards continues to be a leading voice in sculpture, exhibiting nationally and internationally.

    The Exhibition will be on display at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. The event is sponsored by The Trustees of Reservations. For more information visit https://thetrustees.org/exhibit/melvin-edwards-brighter-days/

    Melvin Edwards, “Song of the Broken Chains”, 2020

  • Tuesday, October 26, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Daniela Bleichmar, Online

    Daniela Bleichmar is Professor of Art History and History at the University of Southern California, where she also serves as the founding director of the Levan Institute for the Humanities and director of the USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities. Her research and teaching address the history of images, objects, and texts in colonial Latin America and early modern Europe, focusing on the histories of science and knowledge production, cultural encounters and exchanges, collecting, and books. Her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the ACLS. Her publications include the books Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2012) and Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin (Yale University Press, 2017).  She is currently writing a cultural biography of the Codex Mendoza, an Indigenous illustrated manuscript produced in early colonial Mexico, which traces the extraordinary life of this transcultural object from Mexico City in the 1540s to London in the 1830s.

    Daniela will speak on October 26 at 6:30 pm in a Harvard Graduate School of Design virtual lecture.

    Click here to register for the Public Lecture with Daniela Bleichmar. The event will also be live streamed to the Harvard GSD YouTube page. Only viewers who are attending the lecture via Zoom will be able to submit questions for the Q+A. If you would like to submit questions for the speaker in advance of the event, please click here. Live captioning will be provided during this event. 

  • Thursday, January 14, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm – Water Conservation in the Face of Climate Change, Online

    This Berkshire Botanical Garden lecture on January 14 at 6 pm features Jennifer Riley-Chetwynd, Director of Marketing and Social Responsibility at Denver Botanic Gardens. Like much of the West, Denver has a unique and evolving relationship to potable water. Outdoor water use accounts for more than half of Denver’s water consumption. Learn how Denver Botanic Garden is committed to showcasing beautiful gardens appropriate for a semi-arid climate while advancing water-efficient gardening and agriculture principles through educational programs and partnerships with like-minded organizations. Jennifer will discuss Denver Botanic Garden’s work on water conservation in the face of climate change and their mission-driven approach to community impact. 

    Jennifer Riley-Chetwynd has worked on water issues locally, nationally and internationally. She is the Director of Marketing and Social Responsibility at Denver Botanic Gardens, where she drives sustainability-oriented programming, partnerships and communications. She is also the co-director of the One World One Water (OWOW) Center, a joint initiative of the Gardens and the Metropolitan State University of Denver. Prior to coming to the Gardens in 2011, Jennifer worked for Rain Bird, where she spearheaded the company’s global CSR initiatives. Jennifer is a board member of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, has served on the board of the American Public Gardens Association and was the co-organizer for the 2011 International Water Forum at the United Nations. Jennifer has an MBA from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, an MA in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

    $10 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Advance registration required. https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/water-conservation-face-climate-change