Cheryl Edwards

American, b, 1954

Biography"Cheryl D. Edwards, an African American artist, was born in 1954 in Miami Beach, Florida. While working as an Administrative Law Judge in New York City In 1987, Edwards took night classes at the Art Students League and studied under Ernest Crichlow. She works in oil, ink, acrylic, printmaking, mixed media, pulp painting, papermaking, and installation.

Edwards has been living and working in Washington, DC for over 30 years. From 2015-2023 she was a Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of the David Driskell Center at the University of Maryland. She has also been a member of the Education Committee of the McLean Project for the Arts, an Advisor to the Washington Sculptors Group in DC, and a teaching artist at the Kreeger Museum.

Edwards has exhibited her work internationally and is the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, and residencies, including: The Black Writers Fellowship from Hand Papermaking, Inc. multiple DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities’ Artist Fellowship Grants, a Monte Azul Artist Residency in Costa Rica, among others. Cheryl’s work is archived in the Academic Commons Columbia University Archives.

Artist Statement:

“Since 2008, Ndebele Dolls and 2018 Egyptian Paddle Dolls have dominated my practice. African Dolls function as a bridge to contemporary artmaking as a tool for me to decolonize myself. Ndebele Dolls yield knowledge about living in a society that is decolonized during contemporary times, while Egyptian Paddle Dolls offer knowledge about precolonial Nubians’ society.

In 1987 I traveled to Egypt and to South Africa in 1995. Although I was not a resident of either country, African Dolls have stimulated my genetic memory. Genetic memory is a theorized phenomenon which argues that memories present at birth and without any associated sensory experience can be inherited. This ancestral memory is assisting me in the process of decolonization of self."

Artist website

Person TypeArtist